Flight
by Littlestladybug
Summary: At just six years of age, Alexis Masters was made into a weapon by Camp Z. Now, after being rescued by the "heroes" and made to live in a normal, non-military world, she must unravel her past and try to fit in as well as possible. Because, as she discovers, there are a lot of people who want her dead.
1. Chapter 1

My name is Alexis, but my friends call me Alex.

I am sixteen years old, and about a year ago, my life was relatively simple.

Well, as simple as living in a Camp Z, a Top Secret government facility. My parents dumped me at said facility ten years ago. Maybe they were scared of what I could do. Maybe they never wanted a child who blasted holes in walls when they had a temper tantrum. Either way, I have never heard from them since then.

The worst part about my life besides the beatings, the starvation, the killing, was that I had a job that was so Top Secret that half the time for all of the ten years that the Government wasted on me there came the absolute greatest shock; I did not actually know what my job actually was.

I do now. I do because they told me, after the "heroes" quietly rescued me from the depths of the facility. I am a weapon. I am the world's first superhuman. I could heal, I could output energy to my advantage, I could fight, and I had special mind powers that enabled me to tell my superiors what the foreign minister sitting across from the President was really thinking. The government trained me from the age of five not to have emotions. All they ever told me that was vaguely important were three words. Seek. Kill. Destroy. They taught me how to use all different types of weaponry, they taught me how to use my powers, and they taught me important things in lessons until I was able to do university level everything. I was a killing machine at age thirteen. That was when I went on my first overseas mission. Some people have heard about the Iraq war. I ended that. It was my duty - to end the suffering, the killing, the pain.

Now, the people who helped me out and who want me to be a normal teenager are trying to re-train me. They want to undo the ten years of damage. They acted as if it were easy. Like _poof,_ and the pain, the anger, is gone.

They want to know all about me, and they seem terrified when I never cry. I never laugh. I never smile. I never lose my temper. They get scared when I put my mask on. I do not want to show them anything in case this is a test my superiors have created to see whether I am any good in our military. That is not right though. I saw them die. I saw the way Wolf looked at me as he pulled the knife from their chests, the way he carried me out of the base to the heroes… I cannot think about my team anymore. It is almost forbidden to speak of them.

There are no longer superiors ready to beat me if I show one spark of human feeling. There are no longer days where I would not get food because I could never land a punch on my trainers. People are more worried about the fact that I cannot eat much- due to the times they starved me for a punishment, or the fact that I do not talk, that I can keep myself entertained for several hours just by staring at a wall.

Sometimes I even wish I was back in the base.

When I was eleven, I got a book. It was when my teacher was giving me a year ten essay. The book was "To Kill a Mockingbird", and I memorised it within a month. The men I trained with found it in the changing rooms, and they began a heated discussion about it. I could speak about it with them. That was when my teacher raised me up to year twelve work within that year.

I found the book, along with several other classics, on the shelf above my bed. It was over this book that I shed my first tear. My psychologist practically threw a party. I mean, he actually did a dance around the room that barely passes as an office. He'd become a lot less scared around me as I gradually

However, my biggest challenge- and despite me telling myself otherwise, fear- was the thing every teen in my books dread: high school.

On my first day of school, my guardians gave me everything I needed. They gave it to me, and I never even had to ask. A bag, pencils and pens, books, a timetable, a map, money for my lunch, a phone with a fully charged battery and unlimited credit were the most important items they gave me. They were also keen to have me meet all the teachers at the school prior to me meeting them on the day. That way, I would have a 'friendly face', as Kian- who is my adopted brother- put it, before the new experience completely overwhelmed.

If anything, I ended up underwhelmed as I made my way into the red brick buildings. High school already had a lot to answer for, and I had only been there a minute. The bell went and I felt a surge of panic. I was never late to anything- something I owed to my military training.

With a jolt, I remembered that Mel, my guardian, had dropped me off slightly late because I had to meet the principal in his office before going to school. Mel had wanted to come with me, but I assured her that I was fine, and that I was mature enough to take care of myself. She looked taken aback, but reluctantly allowed me to go in by myself. My heart calmed itself a little.

Parents turned to face me as I entered the office, sympathy evident on their faces. I ignored them and walked up to the secretary- a cheerful looking woman- and in my most deadpan voice, I asked her to show me into Mr Phillips's office. She dutifully showed me in, handing me a courtesy map, the clucking and whispering of the parents still audible behind me.

'Good luck,' she said, smiling at me happily, as if she was pleased to have me there. I shuddered, People that nice were just was too unnatural.

Mr Phillips was a short, rotund man, with a balding head and coke-bottle glasses. He wore a tie and suit, the colours of his pasty white skin, but the tie was so tightly done up that he appeared to have more than his two chins and a purplish tinge to his face.

He greeted me with a smile and sat back down on his chair, which creaked and tilted precariously to one side.

'It's nice to finally meet you, after hearing so much about you. I'd like to say that I'm sorry about what happened to you.'

I just stared at him. I hated this apologising thing. It was too new. I mean, I never apologised to somebody for hitting him or her. He sighed and slid my locker combination across the desk to me.

'They warned me you'd be a difficult one to deal with. I'd better show you to your locker and to class.'

He stood up and waddled over to the door. 'Come on,' he said, motioning for me to follow him. 'You don't want to be late for your first class.'

I hesitantly followed him down multiple corridors, taking note of the hospital-like appearance, with the white walls and the gum smeared grey tiles. The only difference were the lockers lining the halls and the smutted-up "inspirational" posters that some hopeful teachers tacked up to the walls, in the off-chance that some of the students were not actually burnouts like the rest of the student population.

Mr Phillips spoke at me as we walked, showing me the cafeteria, the gym and the teachers staffroom until we reached room 12B. I smoothed down my camouflage pants, which were tight-fitted and popped out against my grey t-shirts. Mel had been trying to get me in the jeans she had bought for me, but I had no intention of ever wearing them. Wearing camouflage was comforting and it was the only thing that I could get my head around wearing. I had originally wanted to wear my Special Ops uniform, which consisted of the colour black, black, and even blacker. We had compromised on camouflage. Not that Mel would want to irritate me.

A dark haired librarian-type teacher with a salmon-pink cardigan and a long pink plaid skirt was marking off the roll on her laptop. She waved to Mr Phillips and opened the door.

I smiled at her, but it seemed to unnerve her, and she lost a bit of spark.

'Hello, you must be my new student.' She beamed at me, but the smile didn't quite reach her eyes.

'Yes.' I nodded tersely. She reminded me of my ex-supervisor. I called her Faux Finch- and the men liked the name. It pretty much stuck. Supervisor Finch had a mean trick she would use with me. She would act like a friend, make me trust her, and then she would go and complain about me slacking off in training sessions. Then came the punishment that she chose for me, that would scream that I could trust nobody. It put me off friends for life.

Mr Phillips gave me a brief smile. 'Alexis, this is Miss Hicks. She is your homeroom teacher.'

'Hello,' I ventured.

There were gasps inside the classroom.

Mr Phillips gave Miss Hicks a meaningful look before turning around and walking back the way we had just come.

'Come on, Alexis. I'll introduce you to your class.'

She walked back in and faced the students.

'Okay everybody. We have a new student joining us. Her name is Alexis.'

'Is she hot?' a male voice called from the back of the classroom.

'See for yourself, Mike.' Miss Hicks gestured for me to come into the room. I readjusted my bag on my shoulders, took a deep breath, and stepped in.

More gasps from the class echoed around the room, and hostile looks directed from the teenagers within my age-bracket burnt holes through me.

A girl in the middle row stood and glared at me. She wore a totally impractical dress with a slit along the side. It was obvious from the appreciative stares she received from the boys in the class that she was Queen Bee. I could have taken her down easily, which made me smile, but I restrained myself from doing so. My smile seemed unnerve her.

'Miss, there is no way I am in a class with a killing machine.' She directed her attention to the teacher briefly before she returned to glaring at me. The amount of venom in her words was positively lethal.

Did she have any idea what the base was like for me? Surely she would have heard the stories? This girl had it all. She didn't have to deal with starvation, torture and abuse on a daily basis. She probably had straight-A's, a teenage brother who she hated because she could, a pair of loving parents, perhaps a pet thrown into the mix. When had her life ever been hard?

And here she was, staring down her nose at me, like I was something the cat had dragged in. Like my entire life wasn't worth acknowledging. I could feel the anger rising, surging and bubbling, coursing through my veins as she continued shouting at my teacher about my "supposed" war crimes, about how I was a ruthless, merciless killer who would execute them whenever I wanted them to. Right then, I was considering the last bit as a possibility. The Queen Bee was on the top of the list, along with anybody else who tried to defend her… _No_. I couldn't kill anybody, even though my fingers itched to do it, to punch her at the base of her spine, paralyse her and then wrap my hands around her neck and… _No_. I was not a killer, not anymore. My hands gripped my grey shirt tightly, my knuckles turning white as I attempted to exercise some self-restraint. Anger was one of my first emotions, when I had tried to kill Kane. I needed to learn to control it.

'Andrea, SIT DOWN!' Miss Hicks roared. Nobody except my superiors had ever spoken like that, and my guardians tried so hard to keep calm and even voices around me. I flinched, listening to my breathing speed up until I knew I was hyperventilating. I tried to calm my heart, but to no avail. Everything began to change drastically fast.

The walls began transforming into grey stainless steel, the students into men holding scary looking weapons, and the desks into blasters. Miss Hicks turned into my worst nightmare. Supervisor Finch stood before me, her fake smile plastered across her face.

She spun to face me. 'Alex, Alex, Alex,' she said condescendingly. 'Did you think you could get away that easily?'

'You… are j-j-j-just a… p-p-p-projection of my f-f-f-ears,' I stuttered out, trying desperately to calm my heart rate. I stumbled backwards, knocking items off Mss Hick's desk. They crashed to the ground and made me jump further.

'Alex, what have I told you about speaking without superior permission? It would look as if we have a punishment on our hands.'

'No!' I shrieked, looking at her in angst. 'No more!'

I whirled around and powered out of the classroom, feeling the rush of air on my face as I began sprinting. I had no idea where I was going. All I knew was that I needed to get out of there. My sense of direction took me to a small grassy spot at the very edge of the school.

I made sure the coast was clear before I dropped to my knees and screamed.


	2. Chapter 2

I definitely felt better once I had cried it all out. I was safe now, safe from Finch, from the men with the guns, from the Director. It took quite a bit to reassure me of that. I continually repeated the mantra that Mel had taught me: _breathe, you're safe, breathe harder, nothing can hurt you now_.

'Geez, you cry a bit. Nothing like what those half-assed reporters say about you.'

The voice made me fall over in surprise. Of course, he was talking about the reporters who somehow managed to spread the malicious gossip about me- the rumours that everybody believed. Of course, about half were true, but the worst ones were always a pack of lies.

A hand reached out and steadied me. I grabbed it and used the stranger's bodyweight to flip him over.

He groaned as he hit the ground.

'Who was it that sent you here?' I growled, standing over him.

'Uh, Miss Hicks?' he suggested, wincing as he tried to move. 'You practically just killed my back too.'

'I am sorry,' I said as I helped him up from the ground, the words tasting strange in my mouth. 'I am a little intense to be around.'

He towered over me as I looked up at him. 'Intense is the right word.'

He grinned and stepped out of my way a little. He seemed to sense that I always needed to see my surroundings before becoming comfortable with the setting.

'Hey, my back is… better? Did you do that?'

'The benefits of accelerated healing,' I muttered, my eyes searching for anybody who may be a vague enemy. My eyes scanned over the trees and the oval

'I don't believe we've met,' he said, thrusting his right hand out and looking at me carefully, 'I'm Zane.'

'Honestly, I do not even know why I bother trying to introduce myself anymore, but I am Alexis.' I shook his hand firmly.

'Yeah, like everybody knows you.'

Zane had chocolate-brown hair that fell over his deep brown eyes, and I felt them warm as he stared at me. I caught him staring, and his eyes darted away, blushing frantically. I inwardly chuckled. Spending the majority of my life with men meant that I was more than qualified to deal with the opposite sex, however most teenage boys my age- including Kian- still had no clue how to act around women.

He looked over at the red brick buildings that sat on the other side of the oval. 'Do you want to head back to class, or would you rather chill out here?'

'What exactly does "chill out" mean?' I asked curiously. I had not yet come across the term.

He looked at me in shock, and ran his fingers through his hair.

'You don't know what "chill out" means?' he asked, astonished.

'We never used it at base,' I said. 'We never had a reason to.'

'You speak oddly, formally, like an adult to a child.' His mouth turned up at the corners slightly as he gazed curiously at me.

'I was never around kids my own age. There were soldiers, supervisors and the Director.'

'And they were all evil?'

I shook my head. 'Not all of them. There were a couple of men who were marginally friendlier than the rest. I sat with them at lunch and on missions, and they snuck food to me when I had starvation punishments.' I refrained from mentioning Wolf to him. No one was ready to hear about Wolf.

'They starved you?' Zane's voice was gentle, incredibly quiet. His hand reached out and he laced his fingers with mine. His hands were warm, and he pulled me into him. I could feel his thoughts buzzing beneath his skin, but I was not going to peek. I wanted to be human. If that was the case, then I could no longer use my mind powers.

'Why are you not you scared of me?' I whispered.

He chuckled. 'Apart from possibly breaking my back, none of the things you've done with your powers and soldiers knowledge were of your own free will. The government controlled you, and I know you're making a conscious effort not to hurt people, to be normal.'

'Not everybody sees it that way.' I turned my head to see the teachers fanning out, presumably looking for us.

'We should probably hand ourselves in.' Zane smiled at me, but I blanched.

'I cannot go back in there. They all hate me.'

'Yes, you can, Alexis. There is nothing to say you don't have friends. It just takes a little while for people to get used to change.'

'Accepting a kid who is damaged psychologically and could kill you with a snap of their fingers is a lot to get used to.' I looked away, to the passing cars that moved by in rainbow blurs. I was surprised at the amount of colour and variations in the vehicles. Camouflage was all I ever saw.

'You wouldn't do that.' Zane seemed convinced.

'Zane, for ten years, I was basically told three things. Seek. Kill. Destroy. How am I supposed to go against something that I have had drilled into me for years?'

'You'll have me,' he said, nudging me playfully. 'I'm not that bad, am I?'

I pretended to think about it. 'Hmm… I do not know…'

'Please, I will be your bodyguard?'

That made me laugh, a sound rarely heard, and a new emotion to add to my diary list.

'I could beat you with my eyes closed.'

'That sounds like a challenge.'

'No, I won't challenge you. Beating up an innocent would not look good with the media or on my college application.'

'Teach me your ways, O Wise One.' Zane was laughing so hard I was sure the teachers could hear us by now.

'I basically finished high school when I was thirteen. So yeah, I _am_ wiser than you.'

He gaped at me. 'No. Way. Get out! How did that happen?'

I stayed silent and put my mask on.

He sighed. 'I'm sorry. I won't ask any more of those questions.'

One of the teachers from the Science faculty suddenly appeared.

'Hey, guys.' He was one of the very few teachers who seemed willing to treat me as a human being.

'Hey, Mr Thompson,' Zane said, grinning sheepishly. 'Alexis had a bit of a freak-out.'

'More like a lot of a freak-out,' I muttered, turning my head away.

'So, you're the newest member of our high school!' Mr Thompson said cheerfully, sitting beside us.

'Mr Thompson, this is Alexis. Alexis, this is our Science teacher, Mr Thompson.'

'It is a pleasure to meet you.' I extended my hand out toward him. He grasped it firmly and shook it.

'So, I won't tell the others you're here. Zane, you and Alexis can sneak off the grounds and go chill somewhere other than here. Come back at lunch – because I'm your teacher for the next two periods – and I'll sign you in.'

Zane smiled gratefully at Mr Thompson. He took my hand and pulled me over to where there was a gap in the fence, and helped me through it.

I looked at him questioningly.

'Emergency escape route,' he said with a grin. 'So, where'd you want to go?'

I shrugged my shoulders. 'I do not know. I have not really been let out of the house yet to do something of my own free will. Last time I went out in public, someone tried to kill me.'

Zane snapped his phone shut and stared at me in disbelief.

'Please tell me you've been to a café?' Zane said, with a look of horror on his face. I shook my head.

'Oh, we have to show you a café.'

'We?' I probed.

'Yes, Alexis. We, as in, I have friends who are currently leaving the school grounds to join us.'

'Are they…'

'Yes, they are safe to be around. In fact, they're the tamest people I've met.'

I felt his hand grasp mine gently as he tugged me along the sidewalk, toward what I knew was a café.

Cafés were definitely not what I was expecting. In the books, they were dingy, small, and in the middle of the street, with lots of people sitting outside to eat.

Zane led me into a small store sitting on the very corner of the two intersecting streets.

It was joined to a bookstore, and as Zane led me through the café area, I ran my fingers along the spines, my fingertips coming to rest on a thickly bound book with a photograph on the front cover that I recognised.

The photo of Alpha team and I, taken on the day I finished the war. They were all grinning, and I knew that even though you couldn't see my face, I was smiling too. That photo was the only thing that had decorated my room. It was the only bit of colour in the stainless steel, and it held a million stories, a million emotions. I hadn't been able to bring it with me when I left the base- the whole place burnt down on the night I was rescued. I think the remaining government agents got there before the media did.

Zane noticed me looking at the book, and he wrapped an arm around my shoulders. I resisted the urge to flip him.

'Do you know them?' he asked.

I turned to face him. 'Yes. They were my team members,' I said, feeling my lips twitch into a small smile. 'That was taken the day we ended the war.'

'They must have been close to you.' Zane's comment was offhand, but it made me tense.

'They were as close as we were allowed to get,' I replied, knowing I could name every one of the people in that photo, their rank, age, whether they were married or not, and if they had children I knew their names too. Let us just say that I had a lot of time, especially during my starvation punishments.

Zane picked up the book, looked at the price tag and pulled out his wallet.

'Why are you buying it?' I inquired quizzically.

'I'm buying it because these people mean something to you. Plus, I know that your guardians probably won't approve of any books that have anything to do with the military, unless I bought it for you.'

Zane was somehow right- my new adoptive family had serious martial arts training, some of which was my idea after the second break in. They despised the military because they believed that the country was going to the dogs and the military was not doing what they were paid to do- protect the American people. Honestly, if the citizens were as vigilant as they had been twenty years ago, then the military would not be doing the things that they were getting away with on a daily basis. He saw the look on my face and smirked. He knew he was right.

Zane took the book up to the counter, and the waitress made an "o" with her mouth when she saw me hovering behind him.

'Alexis, what do you want?' he said, turning to me. I was busy surveying the café, my eyes landing on a pair of men dressed in grey business suits seated by the window. They were staring directly at me -their eyes smouldering with hatred so deep, that I was afraid they may spontaneously combust with the fire that burned within.

'Whatever you are having,' I said distractedly, my gaze never leaving the two men. They found it unnerving, because they both flicked their gaze away.

The door to the small café opened, the bell tinkling as three people, one girl and two boys- who looked like twins, made their way into the small workspace.

'Hey guys!' Zane said with an enthusiasm that he had not used with me yet. 'I was about to finish ordering. Do you want anything?'

'Just the usual,' all three said in perfect unison, and then laughed at themselves.

We all found a table and sat down. The men stood and left.

'So Alexis, you've managed to meet Zane, huh?' the girl asked.

'Yes,' I said, nodding.

'Well, I'm Ruby,' the girl said. Her name suited her looks. She had bright, almost unnaturally coloured, red hair. Her eyes were green- an unnatural green. Her skin was smooth and flawless and she definitely did not seem the type to wear makeup. She seemed older than her seventeen years.

'I'm Dan, and this is Mike. We're twins, as you can see. I'm just better looking.' Dan chuckled as Mike hit him in the arm.

Dan and Mike both had jet black hair and ice blue eyes. Dan had a red streak in his hair and Mike had a green one. I realised that this was the way that most people would be able to tell them apart.

'My name is Alex, but you would know me as Alexis. I don't mind which name you use.' I smiled at them, noticing the two businessmen get up and leave from the corner of my eye.

The waitress placed our coffees on the table and took the table number with her.

'Enjoy, guys,' she said as she resumed her place behind the counter, her eyes not leaving me.

I regarded her with suspicion before Zane's hand on my arm distracted me.

'So, Ruby's going to go shopping with you while Mike, Dan and I do "manly things", and then we'll congregate at the food court before going back to school. Does that sound like a plan?'

'Yes sir,' I said, nodding once. Dan and Mike looked at me with a little sympathy, but Zane seemed unfazed by it. He turned his attention to Ruby and I, smiling at her reassuringly before grinning at me.

'Good. Now, go de-stress.'


	3. Chapter 3

**Nobody has reviewed the last chapter, so I don't know if anybody likes it yet... anyway, here is the next chapter. I promise, if you can stick with it a few more chapters, there will be lot more Avengers mentions. I'm kinda trying to build up a backstory. Please enjoy this, and maybe leave a review? Thanks :)**

'Ruby, could you explain to me why I am having people remove the hair on my legs with hot wax?' I asked, the tears from the loss of my leg hair prickling the corners of my eyes. This was more painful than my daily training sessions. I wondered why my supervisors hadn't decided that hair removal was a viable option for torture.

'It's called the price of beauty, darling.' Ruby put on a fake French accent as she said it, making me smile. I could speak flawless French, and I knew for a fact that nobody ever said "darling" in their everyday talk.

I looked over at the woman who was giving me a manicure, and at the beautician standing over me as she "fixed" my face. According to her, my skin was perfect, but I should have never let my eyebrows grow the way they had. She and Ruby were discussing their beauty regimes- Ruby had revealed she spent an hour in the bathroom every morning preparing her makeup.

She and the beautician bonded almost instantly over the impractical amount of time spent in the bathroom. I now understood why so few women were at Camp Z- the men would never be able to get anything done. I had eventually tuned out as she chatted, only really listening at the end.

'And, I bought a pair of jeans and the awesomest shirt. It'll suit you heaps.'

I groaned internally. Not only had she used a word that was not in the dictionary, she had chosen clothes for me. Even worse, _jeans_. The thought of the blue, thick constrictive material that did not allow for the concealment of weapons without serious thought being put into it made me shudder. I had what Mel called a "pet hate" of jeans.

She looked at the woman hovering over my face, who was removing the last of my eyebrows- the wayward parts of them anyway- and grinned at me.

'We've got an appointment with a makeup artist and hair stylist in ten minutes. Can you go get changed?'

I nodded in defeat, causing Ruby to clap excitedly and pass me a designer bag that looked like the money spent on a shirt and a pair of jeans could be used to fund an entire trip to Paris- spending money included. I quickly decided that Ruby was rich- very rich. She had paid for the entire makeover, plus the clothes.

I slipped into the shopping centre toilets and pulled the clothes out of the bag. There was a pair of stonewashed jeans which I accepted with a nod of my head, and then I pulled out the shirt- a tight fitting _camouflage_ t-shirt.

I ignored the colouring and pulled the jeans and the t-shirt on.

I walked out of the toilets to stares from the crowd. Ruby tugged me into the beauty salon and sat me in front of a man and a woman.

'This is Alexis. Can you make her pretty?' Ruby asked. The two beauticians nodded enthusiastically and set to work.

'My face feels weird, Ruby,' I said as we stopped in the food court to buy something edible. We had about twenty minutes before we had to get to the school- which was two minute walk away- and we were planning on meeting the three boys here.

'Do you want anything?' Ruby asked as she stepped up to the register.

'Whatever you are having,' I said, noticing the two scowling businessmen from the café sit down in two of the various seats around the food court. I froze, knowing that this could not be a coincidence. The men looked up and glared at me again.

So, there was definitely a lot of anger there, and definitely not coincidence.

Somebody knocked into me, their shoulder sending me to the floor.

'Hey!' Ruby exclaimed, glaring at the person who had knocked me down.

'Oh, I'm sorry,' the person said in deep male tones, picking me up and setting me back down on my feet. I recognised that voice.

'This time of day is usually the busiest. Sorry if I caused any inconvenience.'

I gaped at the owner of the voice – a tall man, 6"3' at least with jet black hair and piercing green eyes that seemed to x-ray me.

The phrase was also a familiar one- we are being watched and the enemy is nearby. Almost every time we were in public, that phrase was used.

'Wolf?' I asked.

The man gave me a sad smile.

'Not anymore.'

He pressed a cool metallic item into my hand and reached up toward his ear, miming what I should do.

'Operation 273 begins in two minutes,' he said, whisper soft, as he brushed away the hair that had artfully been placed around my face.

'I…' I began, but he disappeared.

'Well, that was weird.' Ruby appeared beside me.

'Tell me about it.' I accepted the box of takeaway food that she held in her hands, peeking inside. Chicken strips and over-salted chips stared back at me. I smiled. Something bad that Mel hated. I don't know why, but I immensely enjoyed annoying Mel.

Zane, Dan and Mike walked over toward us.

'Whoa,' Mike exclaimed when he saw me. I did not really appreciate the way he looked at me after that.

That was when I heard the gunshots.

There were screams all around me as people ducked for cover.

I pushed Zane, Ruby, Mike and Dan down to the ground and pulled out the metal device out of my pocket.

I examined the earpiece that sat in my hand and lifted it up to my ear. The mouthpiece slotted out of the earpiece until it came to rest just beside my mouth.

'Alpha Team, this is Pixie. What is your situation?'

'Pixie, can we get a read on your position?' Wolf's voice was instantly in my ear, the sound oddly comforting, placing me back within my element.

'The food court, next to the Pie Shop,' I said, watching Ruby's eyes bulge out of her head when I pulled a knife out of the knee-high boots I wore, and a Glock out of the other, looking for the threat that was lurking nearby.

'Eagle will relay instructions to you from me. He has secured the nearest store to you.'

I looked around and spotted the smallest hint of a shadow that would come from a standing man.

'Eagle, this is Pixie,' I spoke quietly into what I knew was a whisper sensitive mike.

'Pixie, it's nice to hear from you again after so long. I have a bag of equipment for you.'

A hand passed me a duffel bag. I retrieved my body armour, and had strapped it in within twenty seconds.

It was armed with several knives, a bow and quiver full of arrows that would actually fold back into the armour, guns and a wrist cuff, which was jam-packed with technological functions.

'Eagle, what is the current situation?' I asked.

'Terrorist forces have broken into the shopping centre, and their men are taking the shoppers hostage.'

'Did you receive intelligence from Scopes?' I inquired.

Eagle looked over to me.

'Damn, I've missed you, Alex.'

We heard Wolf clear his throat over the comms. 'Secure the next three stores. If you encounter a hostile, _do not engage_. Our aim is to neutralise the targets and free as many civilian hostages.'

'Okay men, move out,' Eagle ordered as we filed out of the store silently.

And then Ruby screamed.

A man wearing a balaclava and holding a dangerous-looking gun was threatening my four new friends.

'Scopes, Wolf, _whoever_ , this is Pixie requesting assistance.' It was strange how the music that played throughout the centre was still playing. It added soundtrack to the drama. At the moment, it was playing Fall Out Boy- the bass adding to that intense atmosphere.

'Request received, Pixie. What is your circumstance?' I almost could have kissed Wolf for answering.

'There is a lone hostile with four civilians. He is armed with a .32 shotgun and he looks to be well-trained in its use.'

'Stand down, Pixie. There will be civilian casualties. We cannot help that.'

Scratch that kiss. 'No, that is wrong.'

I heard him gasp over his mike. I had _never ever_ questioned an order.

'Pixie, _stand down_.' Eagle said, pulling me back toward him. I wrenched myself from his strong grip and unsheathed my knife.

'Hey, over here!' I yelled, watching as the man turned, his eyes widening in surprise as he saw me.

'What is it you want, irritating child?' he asked in a thick Arabic accent.

'I want you to let the innocents go.'

He chuckled. 'I'm sorry, but that isn't going to happen.'

'I am going to give you one chance to submit. If you do, we will not kill you. If you do not take up my very generous offer, it will be _or else_.'

He laughed and grabbed Ruby, his hand grasping the back of her neck in a death hold.

'You should be scared of me,' I said, anger evident in my voice. His grip tightened on Ruby's neck. She whimpered, and he smiled, the bright white of his smile dazzling. It was sick and twisted.

'I will keep this one. She will be more fun alive.'

Ruby's eyes widened. Dan let out a primeval roar and pushed the man to the floor. There was a shot and Dan rolled off the man, blood blossoming from a wound in his chest. The amount of blood almost confirmed it was a fatal shot.

The man stood up and went to grab Ruby again, but Dan had given me the distraction I needed.

I seized his shoulders and threw him bodily into a wall.

'You should have just submitted,' I said, pressing up against him and adding pressure to the blade I had placed against his throat.

He crumpled to the floor.

'The building is secure. All hostiles have been detained and are in our custody. Good work, Alpha team.'

I heard Wolf's words before my eyes fell on Dan's body, which was lying beside Mike, Zane and Ruby.

'No!' I yelled, sprinting toward him and kneeling next to him.

'Alexis, please fix him!' Ruby begged.

I looked at her, tears shining in my eyes. 'It is fatal, Ruby. I cannot heal him.'

From the look on her face, I wished I could have been anywhere but there at that time.

'Can you at least try?' she whispered. I nodded and placed both of my hands on his chest.

Green sparks flashed from my hands and wove themselves around Dan.

I let the healing power go for a minute, waiting for it to take, but I knew that it should have taken instantly if there was even a small spark there.

'I am sorry…' I began, feeling a tear slide down my face, followed by several more.

Ruby wailed and pulled Dan's head into her lap.

I sobbed, feeling the unfamiliar sensation of grief wash over me. Arms wrapped around me and pulled my shaking body into their chest.

'It's alright, Alex.'

Wolf.

I held onto him tightly, scared that if I let go I would fall. He sensed this and drew me even closer.

Thoughts flashed through my head, though not in an order that I could make sense out of them. Safety and protection were two things I could pick up out of it.

I pulled out of Wolf's mind, smiling weakly up at him. He ran a finger along my jawline, smiling back.

Tiger cleared his throat, and Wolf reluctantly let go of me.

'We're here on important business. It involves you, and the Director.'

I unconsciously shuddered at his title. The Director had allowed people to experiment on me- allowed them to inject me with millions of specially made cocktails of drugs. There had been the time that Wolf had nursed me back to health after they temporarily neutralised my healing powers and then given me a terrible disease. Wolf had never told them.

'What does that bastard want?' I spat.

'Well, as you know, he was executed when you got out of base. But he'd already done the damage by that time.'

'What did he do?' I asked. Wolf shook his head and nodded toward my newfound friends.

'We cannot tell you with the civilians here,' Snake said.

I groaned. 'Can you tell me where we can meet and talk?'

'Certainly,' Fox said. 'You can get in the car with us, and we'll tell you on the way to your school.'

'Nice try, but I am not too keen on being kidnapped, thanks.'

Eagle smiled at me. 'We'll get you and your friends back to school. I promise that we will meet up with you later, perhaps with the foster parents?'

'They are trained in several martial arts. If they find you on the doorstep, they will not hesitate to kick your butts.'

'The regulars have arrived, team,' Wolf announced to the group.

I peeled off my body armour and handed it and all weapons to Fox.

'I will see you later then.'

'Yes, later,' Wolf said stoically. He leant forward and kissed me on the lips ever so gently. 'And I really like that look, Alex.'

I pressed my fingers to my lips as they left and disappeared into the crowd outside.

 **So, did we like it? Leave a review! :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey everybody! (Okay, so the people who may have read this...) Here is the next chapter! Enjoy it! And maybe leave me a review?**

'Alexis!' Mel yelled it as she made her way down the steps and pulled me into her arms. 'Are you okay?'

'Seriously? You are asking the girl who has accelerated healing whether or not she is okay?'

The policemen who had driven me home got back into the car and left, without so much as a word. I knew they were going straight to the morgue and them to file a report. My name would be in the server, and I estimated that I had at least thirty-six hours until the media began asking questions. Great. Thirty-six hours of more stress, stress that I did not need.

Mel smiled. 'Okay, so maybe it's a little bit overbearing. I'm sorry about-'

I held up my hand. 'No. No more "sorry", because it is driving me mad. What happened did happen, and no amount of sorries will bring Dan back. If only I could have saved him. And that is another thing- Alpha team is coming over.'

'Alexis, please tell me that you aren't going to re-join their team?'

'No. Well, maybe. They said they had something important to tell me, and that they want you to be there as well.'

'Well, until then, go have a shower. You're covered in blood.'

I heard the doorbell ring halfway through my shower. I had only got half the blood off in that time. I finished up as quickly as I could, careful not to use hot water. I towel-dried my hair and pulled on my khaki pants and bra- planning on looking for a clean-ish t-shirt I could wear. I opened the door to my bedroom to see all five of Alpha team sitting there.

'Argh!' I shrieked, picking up the nearest shirt I could find and pulling it on.

I noticed that Wolf was looking at me appreciatively. He looked away as I glared at him.

'Right, so what is it you wish to discuss with me?' I said as I sat down on the bed that Eagle had stretched himself out on- looking suggestive to any woman but me.

'Would you like us to tell you with your guardians present, or would you prefer it now?' Snake asked.

'Oh, hit me.'

'Alpha team has always been the strongest of our military teams, right?' Wolf began. He waited until I nodded before continuing. 'Our Alpha team was the strongest and possibly invincible team we had ever had. Coupled with you, we were the best team to ever be created.'

'Get to the point, Wolf,' I said impatiently, knowing that this could be more condensed than he let on.

'We found secret, _secret_ , documents from three years ago in the science labs. You know, when we had all our tests done? Well, it turns out that they did something else.'

'And what do you mean by "else"?' I asked.

'I mean, Alex, that they modified our bodies without our permission, that they did something that is considered wrong. Thankfully, they can't do it to anybody else- the scientist who created the serum died and he kept that knowledge in his head. '

'What?' I asked. 'You need to tell me. What did they do to us?'

The men were silent for a few heartbeats, looking at each other as if to silently confirm who was going to be saying the next sentence. Wolf sighed and stepped forward.

'Alex, they made us semi-immortal.'

'Alex, breathe.' Wolf was standing over me, his hands gripping my shoulders tightly. The pressure reminded me that I was still awake. I don't know if that was a good thing or not.

'They made us immortal?' I said as soon as I could form a coherent sentence.

'No, semi-immortal,' Snake corrected me. 'We can still die from most things- like wounds and stuff, but we won't age in mind or body. We will remain the way we always have been since the serum took hold- but you'll age to eighteen in your case.'

'So you're saying that I'm a semi-immortal, and so are you? Why are you here, other than to tell me this? You all have family, except for Wolf.'

'Well, I think it's high time we began using our real names instead of our military code names,' Fox said, standing up. 'I'm Cain Thompson.'

'My name is Nicholas Evergreen.' Snake stood up from where he crouched and placed a hand on my shoulder. 'You can call me Nick.'

'Joseph Gale,' Eagle said from beside me. 'Most people, however, call me Joe.'

'Hunter Clift,' Tiger said from where he was guarding the rooms only other way in- the window.

I looked at Wolf expectantly.

'My name is Chase. Chase Tanner,' he said softly.

There was a knock on the door and Kian stuck his head through the door.

'Alex, hey, Mum says that…' he trailed off as he saw the five men in my bedroom. All five were up in a flash, and they dragged Kian into the room.

'What did you hear?' Joe said, pushing him up against my bedroom wall.

'Guys, he is an innocent. Leave him alone,' I said, tugging Joe away from him. I gave Kian a little space.

'Did you hear any of our conversation?' I asked, surreptitiously entering his mind.

 _What conversation could she possibly have with them?_ Kian thought. _She looks pretty shaken up- it must be either pretty life-altering or top secret for them to be acting like this. I think I'll go get Mum…_

'No, I didn't.' Kian sounded as if he was trying to be as confident as he could, but his eyes continually darted toward the hardened military men that stood behind me. He had no idea that we were able to decipher a lie with ease.

'He's lying,' Hunter said, dragging me away from Kian.

'No, he's telling the truth,' I protested. 'You have to believe me. You guys are just terrifying.'

Wolf- no, _Chase_ \- put a hand out to stop the other men from advancing.

'She's right.'

'Kian, just make sure that nobody else tries to come in here. We do not want another freak-out like this again. Oh, and do not get Mel.'

Kian backed out of the room, and closed the door behind him.

'So, what do we do?' I asked.

'We can't exactly publicise this, or somebody will try to kill us, or they will experiment on us.'

'Whoa, no! They wouldn't do that to us. We're people too!' Nick exclaimed.

'Welcome to my world,' I grumbled.

Cain ran his fingers through his hair. 'Alex, what do you suggest we do?'

'I think that we should take advantage of the situation,' I answered simply.

'What?' Nick asked. 'What on Earth do you mean by that?'

'I mean Nick, that we are the strongest military team that America has ever had. Now we've been made semi-immortal. Imagine how many people we can save, look after, and help.'

'What exactly are you suggesting?' Joe probed suspiciously.

I pulled the book that Zane had bought me out of my school backpack.

'This,' I said, pointing at the cover.

Mel looked a little surprised when I trod downstairs, Alpha team following me a little hesitantly. I smiled at Mel, who gave a weak smile back and promptly dropped the choc-chip biscuits she had just pulled out of the oven when she saw the men behind me.

'Ow, that isn't cool, Alexis! You could have given me some warning before they came.'

Chase sniggered behind me. 'Alexis, eh?'

Mel crossed the kitchen and began running her hand under cold water, the burn from the tray evident on her palm.

'Come here, you baby,' I teased, taking her hand in mine and pushing the sparks into her hand. The skin healed back over, as good as new.

'Thank you, Alexis.'

More sniggers from Alpha team. I turned to glare at them, but they couldn't control themselves and howled with laughter.

'Well, it's good to see that some of you are vaguely human,' Mel muttered. 'I'm just going to call Jeremy, and get him to leave work.'

'Mel, if that is code for "I'm going to call back-up", then you may want to reconsider,' I said, exchanging looks with Hunter and Joe, who had already dropped into their intercept stance.

Mel looked sheepishly over to me. 'I'll wait until Jeremy does come home, but I want you back home before six, Alexis.'

Hunter, Nick, Chase, Joe and Cain laughed harder.

'Mel, could you do me the biggest favour ever and not call me Alexis?' I hissed at her. 'They're used to Alex.'

'I'm continuing to call you Alexis. That is your given name.'

I groaned. 'Please, or they'll never let me live it down.'

'You like one of them, don't you?' Mel teased. And I blushed. I mean, I fully blushed.

'You do!' Mel squealed.

'Shh, keep it down. Do you recommend any local places for us to chill?'

'Oh, and you've picked up slang! There are so many celebrations we could be having right now.'

'Mel, I swear, if you don't shut up _right now_ , I will blast you.'

She toned it down, but was still grinning.

'There's a coffee shop down the street. Can you go there and wait for Jeremy to come home?'

I nodded.

I waved to Alpha team. 'Come on, guys. We're going down to the coffee shop.'

'What are we going to call ourselves?' Cain mused as the waiter placed our drinks on the tables- I already had a strong liking for hot chocolate, but the men seemed to prefer strong black coffee.

'The Avengers!' Nick exclaimed.

'That's already taken, you numbskull!' Joe chastised.

'What are the Avengers?' I asked curiously.

'Exactly, Joe,' Nick said cheerfully, gesturing to me. 'Not everybody knows about the Avengers!'

'They're a bunch of superheroes, Alex. They fight to save the world on a daily basis,' Joe informed me.

'Like us?' I asked, feeling confused. Why weren't we called the Avengers if we did actually save the world?

'Case in point,' Nick said. 'We should call ourselves the Avengers.'

'No, Nick!' Joe burst out. 'We are not giving ourselves the same name as a team of superheroes, and that is final. So give up on it already.'

'Yeah, but it's a cool name.' Nick pouted and I grinned.

'Maybe we should just stick to Alpha Team?' Chase suggested.

'That's _boring_!' Nick admonished.

Hunter chuckled at his antics and took a sip of his coffee.

'Are you feeling okay about this morning?' Chase asked, his hand slipping into mine and gripping it tightly. I relished the contact.

'As okay as you can feel seeing somebody you had come to call friend shot in front of you,' I replied nonchalantly.

'Yes, I was worried about that. You are more of a girl than I had previously thought.' He winced as I punched his arm.

The bell on top of the door to the coffee shop tinkled as two men in business suits entered. I swear my heart stopped.

 _The two men who just entered have been following me all day,_ I sent to the men at my table. They instantly opened up their mind channels so that we could all communicate with each other. It was something we had all been taught to do- but it only worked when we were in close contact with the others.

 _Have you seen them before the shooting?_ Hunter asked. The men continued on their normal conversations, but I ignored them and concentrated on the paper in front of me, and on keeping the mind link open.

 _Yes. They were there in the food court and they were also in the coffee shop with Zane and me._ I replied.

 _They might be from the Army._ Nick sounded almost hopeful in my mind, but I shook my head.

 _I would have noticed. I can feel these things._

Chase cleared his throat in his mind and aloud. _Alex, I want you to hack and tell us what you can about them._

'Can you guys shut it? I am trying to read the paper!' I said loudly to the table. The men smiled and began having a quieter conversation.

I found the two businessmen's minds in the jumble of thoughts that were in the coffee shop and stealthily entered the harder looking one.

 _The girl sticks out like a sore thumb. Most people her age would be on their phones, not reading a newspaper. Why would the boss want her? She doesn't blend at all. And from the looks of her, she has no clue about her actual situation. Can the Army brainwash?_

I took a deep breath and relayed this to Chase, listening to him share it with the others in his excited mind-voice.

 _What do I do?_ I asked them all.

 _We'll talk about this back at your guardian's house_ , Joe said.

 **So... whaddya think? Leave a review :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**I'm kind of disheartened by the lack of response to the previous chapter. I don't know if I'm doing this right, so please let me know!**

I jimmied the key in the lock and opened the front door.

'Mel? Jeremy? We're back!' I yelled into the house.

'I'm in the kitchen!' Mel hollered back. 'Your friends will have to stay for dinner- you know what Jeremy is like.'

I grimaced. Jeremy without his food was like a fox in a trap. He was dangerous.

'Make yourselves at home!' Mel shouted. The men traipsed into the lounge room and began flipping through DVD's, selecting scary-looking ones and making ghost noises.

'This one's a classic,' Nick said, picking up a disk and displaying it to the group. The title was "Saw", and I looked at it curiously.

'You want to watch a horror movie?' I asked dubiously. 'Why not something Rosie can watch with us?'

Rosie bounced into the room and clambered up onto my lap.

'There is "Happy Feet". Do we want to watch that one?' Chase suggested.

'Yes!' Rosie squealed, clapping her hands together excitedly. Chase winked at me as he slid the disk into the drive. I had told him via our mind link about Rosie's infatuation with penguins.

Rosie snuggled into me, and buried her face in my shoulder when we got to a scary scene.

'Hey, it's okay Rosie,' I said soothingly, rubbing her back comfortingly.

At the end of the movie, I pried her off me and gave her a hug.

'You aren't squishy like Mummy,' she said, sitting up. She prodded my stomach. 'And your tummy is hard.'

'They're called "muscles", Rosie, and they are what give me the power to flip Kian over when he invades my room,' I told her.

'Do I have muscles?' Rosie asked.

'Yes, of course you do,' Kian said, flexing his arm from his recent workout in the gym downstairs.

I don't even know how we got around to it, but soon all the people downstairs were comparing muscles, including me.

Jeremy trounced down the stairs and stopped dead at the sight of the men and my new family members arm-wrestling. He looked at us in displeasure.

Kian grinned and signalled for Chase and I to begin our arm wrestle, his hand wrapped solidly around mine.

'You ready to be beaten for the first time ever, Pix?' he said over our raised hands. I smirked and added my own to the trash-talk.

'Nope,' I said cheerfully. 'Are you ready to lose again?'

The men "oohed" and made me chuckle. I was in my element again- a show of strength.

'Go Pixie!' Joe exclaimed excitedly.

My eyes flashed green- a reflection from Chase's eyes told me that it had happened, and I felt his grip strengthen as he saw it also.

'No powers,' he said through gritted teeth.

'Aw, no fun, Chase,' I said, grinning wickedly. Withdrawing my power into my core- where it wouldn't interfere with my normal human body- I summoned all my strength and slammed his hand into the table. The men, Rosie and Kian whooped and did a little dance around the room.

'I win,' I said, locking eyes with him again. He smiled and held my hand for a little too long before Mel appeared in the doorway.

'Dinner is ready. But we'll have eat outside to fit this many people.'

I stood up and went to help her carry the plates of food outside. There was enough food to feed a small army- for a week at least.

'So, what do you wish to discuss with us?' Jeremy asked eventually, after he'd shovelled more food into his mouth.

'Alex, actually,' Chase said, with a side glance at me.

'Alexis, honey, you need to eat a bit more,' Mel said, attempting to pile meat and bread onto my plate. I'd barely touched any of original meal. My stomach was swimming with anxiety. What if they didn't take the news well, and decided to step security up? I don't think I could deal with that. And then there was Dan…

'I'm not hungry,' I muttered, pushing my plate away.

The men sitting beside me exchanged looks.

'Alex, please eat something. You know what you're like when you don't eat enough,' Chase said gently.

' _Weak_ ,' I whispered, remembering that night, when Chase had carried me out- I couldn't walk after fifteen days of starvation.

'Now eat a third of the plate, or I will make you do six hundred push-ups tomorrow,' Nick said. There was no arguing with him when he was in soldier mode. I picked up my fork and began eating, glaring at Nick between mouthfuls.

'What about Alexis?' Jeremy asked- his voice was dangerously low, a sure sign that the men needed to tread carefully. 'If this about you wanting her to be part of your team…'

'I want to re-join the Alpha team,' I interrupted, staring him down. He audibly gulped, and I let my eyes flare a little, enjoying the tension.

'Alex, don't play,' Hunter scolded. I glared at him and he backed off.

'I am still not used to her being assertive,' I heard him grumble to Cain, who snickered.

'Why would you want to re-join the people who imprisoned you for all those years?' Kian pondered aloud.

'We didn't _imprison_ her!' Chase said defensively. 'If anything, we were the ones that looked after her.'

'They gave me food, extra training, and they looked after me when we were on missions,' I explained, trying to settle Chase down. I placed a hand on his knee and looked up at him, willing him to look at me and calm down a bit.

He reached down, took my hand and squeezed it gently.

 _Calm_ , I sent to him via our personal mind channel.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. I stretched my hand out and touched his cheek, feeling him relax under the skin contact.

'Urgh, can you two stop with the love fest?' Cain groaned. I pulled my hand away, feeling Chase tense again.

'I don't know, Alexis. We should probably talk to Kane about this…' The reference to my psychiatrist and the man who acted as a double agent to get me out of the base made my breathing quicken, my heart rate speed up and my muscles reinforce themselves with green in preparation for a hit.

Kane had arrived a few years before I was rescued, and I swear that he enjoyed giving me beatings, that he was not pretending. The sadistic gleam in his eye scared me now, and I was not supposed to feel fear. Chase felt this too, and he instinctively moved closer to me.

'There is _no way_ I am talking to Kane,' I said softly. Chase wrapped an arm around me and pulled me into his lap, his arms enveloping me in a comforting embrace that made me loosen up my tensed muscles.

Mel cleared her throat and told Kian to take Rosie inside.

 _Don't make Dad angry, or he will get back-up,_ Kian told me, with a look that said that he knew I heard him as he disappeared into the house, swiping a couple of sandwiches as he went.

'He did it all in the vain hope of rescuing you, Alexis,' Jeremy said finally.

They weren't seeing the point, the reason as to why I was reacting like this. They weren't there, neither was Alpha Team. Nobody had an idea what he did. I had to show them.

'No, he did not!' I shouted, slamming my fist on the table and making everybody jump in shock. I jumped up and started pacing around the table. Everybody watched me, too scared to do anything about it.

I knew my team had the power to stop me, and Nick tried that before Chase placed a hand on his arm and mouthed "let her go" and Nick had sat back in his seat.

'I promised I would never do this, because of how much about me you already knew, but you have left me with no other choice.'

'Alex, no!' Joe exclaimed. 'You cannot Share. It causes physical harm to the receiver.'

Sharing was a new thing to me. I had just discovered it at least a month before I escaped, and yet the men and I knew it was dangerous. Sharing was when I showed a specific memory to either myself or chosen few- where I could review it for memory purposes. The sharing came with a slight problem, however- whatever was inflicted upon my body was felt by the other viewers- and I myself would be inflicted with my own pain, resulting in un-healable headaches that could last for at least three days.

'I will heal it,' I said, with a dismissing wave of my hand. 'It'll be the emotional scarring they won't be able to fix.'

Mel and Jeremy stood up hurriedly.

'Alexis, _sit down_!' Jeremy roared, but I pushed him back down into his seat.

No, you will watch!' I said, letting my eyes flash even more. The look on his face- a mix between confusion and fear- was almost worth cracking my carefully created façade for.

Mel looked at Alpha team, the panicked look in her eyes making me pause a little.

'How bad is this Sharing thing?' she asked them.

'It causes her more pain that it does you, so if she wants to share then it's worth taking the risk.'

Mel nodded. 'Jeremy, let's do this.' She sat down in her seat, and stared at me apprehensively. 'Go on, Alexis. Do your Share thing.'

I took a deep breath and bobbed my head at Hunter and Cain, who were now standing behind Jeremy and Mel. They clamped their hands over Jeremy and Mel's mouths, and pushed them into their seat.

Chase wrapped an arm around my waist and pressed his hand against my mouth.

'Be careful, Alex,' he warned. I craned my neck to look at him, his blue eyes becoming soft as the made contact with my radioactive green ones.

'Please. For me.'

I nodded, spread my hands out wide, and shared my most hated memory.

 **So, what is her most hated memory? Keep reading to find out! REVIEW!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Okay, so from what I understand, I've been somehow posting code up... oops! I'm sorry to everybody who couldn't read the affected chapters. I should have checked... this one isn't as long as I intended it to be.**

I selected the memory of the time I had been told that Kane was part of the heroic side.

I was back in my body. Kane was next to me, his feet smashing into my rib cage, that malicious gleam in his eyes making me want to throw up.

'You stupid little girl,' he hissed, bending down to me. 'You should be fighting back.'

I knew I wouldn't get up. Doing that was just cause for more beatings, and I did not want that at all.

'I will repeat this only once,' he said, with a brutal kick to the back of my head. 'I am part of an organisation. HYDRA- the Homeland Youth Division of Retrieval and Analysis, and we are currently reviewing your situation to see if you can remove you from Camp Z.'

I did not reply. I did not want to be hit again by a superior.

He sighed. 'You can talk, Alexis.'

'Sir, it is too dangerous for you to attempt this.' I dusted myself off as I stood up, and he kicked me from behind, forcing me back down to my knees.

'Did I say you could stand?' he growled. 'Just because I am getting you out of here does not mean that anything is going to change.'

'Sir?' I asked weakly.

'Alexis, I am going to be monitoring you. I am going to be watching your every move. One false move and I will kill you. Do you understand?'

He waited until I nodded before continuing.

'Besides, perhaps we could make this extraction more interesting?' He pressed his lips to my neck, and I flinched away, having never been touched by a supervisor like that before. Killing holds, yes. This… not so much.

'Do not touch me like this!' I snarled, kicking him hard in the groin, and watching him double over in pain with some satisfaction.

He chuckled, despite the pain he was in. 'You can have any man you want in the base, Alexis. I've seen the way they look at you. The only one you let come close is your precious Wolf… maybe I should kill him.'

I stood there in shock. Wolf…no, _Chase_ , was the closest thing I had to an ally in this top secret base.

'Go to hell!' I shouted, before flying at him. He was ready for it, and he threw me to the floor.

'Do not let your emotions govern your fighting Alexis. Is that not Rule Number One?'

'You… cannot…' I gasped as he placed pressure on my windpipe.

'Can and will, sweetheart. And you will become one of HYDRA, without complaint.'

And that was when he broke my jaw.

I snapped back to the present. There was a splitting pain between both my temples, and I felt the green circle around my hands as Chase directed it onto Mel and Jeremy to heal what I knew was their broken jaws, along with at least a dozen more painful injuries.

'C'mon, Alex. Wake up.' Chase placed both his hands on my face. 'Let me see your eyes.'

I stared up at him, my eyes widening at the concern in his eyes.

'Are you okay, Alex?' he asked, reaching for my face, but catching himself just before he did.

'I need to rest,' I murmured, trying to stand up without his help.

He grabbed my waist and pulled me up into his arms. 'I'll take you up to your bedroom, okay?

'You can't. Mel will get angry.'

He smiled and brushed my hair out of my face. 'Do I look like I care? I'm going to go get some water and paracetamol, okay? Don't go to sleep.'

'I can do that,' I said, thinking back to my sleeping training- I could go a week without sleeping and eating, and that was apparently wrong.

He grinned and pressed his lips to my forehead.

'You're too hot,' he murmured, and carried me up to my room.

'It's cold,' I said, frowning at him. 'Can you not feel the chill?' I was confused now.

'Shit, Alex!' he exclaimed, crossing to the bathroom and rummaging through the medicine cabinet. 'How far did you push yourself?'

'How long was I gone?' I asked, resting my head on the cool tiles of the bathroom.

'Twenty minutes,' he replied, pouring a glass of water and carrying it and me over to my bed. I took it and tasted the soluble paracetamol he had put in it. I made a face at the taste it left in my mouth.

'Longer than usual, then,' I said to him, watching him glare at my sarcastic tone.

I shivered, and he wrapped a heap of blankets around my shoulders, pushing me back onto the bed.

'Rest, Alex,' he said, brushing the hair back from my forehead and pressing his lips to the sweaty skin there.

I dutifully closed my eyes and fell asleep.

'No, you can't go in! You'll wake her up!' Chase's voice drew me up from the deep abyss that was my sleeping- I had been trained to sleep when I could for a certain period of time, but it only took a small noise to wake me fully.

'Too late!' I grumped. I was in my bedroom, Chase's clothes strewn over the floor.

 _Funny, for a military man I would have thought he would keep things neat and tidy,_ I thought. I hated mess. I couldn't leave a shirt unfolded, or my bed messy. Ever.

'We have been looking for her for a year now,' a male voice growled. 'Something's come up, and we need her.'

'You are going to have to come back later,' Chase growled back.

'No, you are going to give her to me _now_ ,' the voice practically bellowed.

'And you are going to get out of my house, Tony.' Mel's voice joined the fray. I heard a gun click.

'Is it worth telling you that there is a squad of soldiers outside, waiting for me to tell them she's coming out willingly?'

'And is it worth mentioning, Mr Stark, that you are hopelessly uninformed on who exactly is in this house?' I said, drawing myself up to my full height and staring him down.

 **Finally! I reached the Avengers mentions! I hope you enjoyed it thus far, and perhaps you would like to review? It would be much appreciated.**


	7. Chapter 7

**This is the next part of Alexis's adventures. I hope you have liked it so far!**

A group of men and a woman sat at the bottom of the stairs, and they all audibly gasped as I appeared.

'Are you here to take me back?' I asked calmly. Tony glared at me, and I glared back, allowing the green to once again remind him of who exactly he was dealing with. I moved quickly and grabbed the front of his shirt, twisting it in my hand and pushing him up against the wall.

'I am not going back, not without a fight.'

'Alexis, I am not here to fight you,' Tony said.

I rolled my eyes. 'Yes, that's what they all say. What should make me trust you, Mr Stark? Is it the fact that you are the good guy here? Because we sure as hell know that isn't something you could tell me to gain my trust.'

Chase glanced over to me. 'Would it help if I said I trusted him?'

I snorted. 'That's a lie and you know it. Are you trying to get rid of me, Chase?'

He looked sheepishly over at me. 'No, Alex. I just believe that these people want you to do what we discussed. You're technically more important because of your abilities.'

'And you guys have wicked fight skills, which would make you more sought after than I was.'

'Alex, please,' Chase begged.

'I'm just being rational, Chase. You know- the thing that took two weeks of starvation to kick in? Literally?'

Chase nodded. That had been a whole team punishment, but it had come about due to Chase and Joe when we were in the field.

'Much as I love the reminiscing, I would prefer to walk out of here today, thanks,' Tony grumbled.

I glared at him again.

'Why are you here, Mr Stark? What have you idiots done to the planet again that needs me to help fix?'

'Loki,' one of the three men at the bottom of the stairs piped up. He had golden hair that was at least shoulder length, tied back in a ponytail, and medieval-looking armour on. He had a hammer sitting on the floor beside him. I refrained from rolling my eyes. Men, and their choice of inappropriate weaponry, baffled me. I preferred the cold steel of a gun or a knife so sharp you could cut your enemy in half and they wouldn't notice until they moved.

I popped my hip, placing both hands on my hips, a trick I learnt from Mel. 'You mean the Norse god Loki?'

Tony nodded, and I mentally cursed the ignoramuses I was constantly surrounded by. I had warned them that this would happen- but had they listened? No, and now they expected me to help bail them out of the mess that they had created, yet again.

'Goddamn it, Stark! After I told your Director not to keep all of the otherworldly artefacts in the one place, he does his own thing anyway.'

I punched the nearby wall, plaster crumbling beneath my fist. Mel shot me a disapproving look, and sighed deeply.

'Nick doesn't always listen to what we tell him.'

'I have a higher clearance. Even though I am not a superior at the base I was in, I was his superior.'

'He has authority issues; i.e. he does his own thing, a lot,' the woman piped up from where she was resting casually by the wall, flipping her gun safety on and off.

'And who may you be?' Chase interrupted. As all attention flickered to him, I opened up my mind link to tell Cain, Joe and Hunter to stand down.

'My name is Agent Romanoff, not that it's important.'

'I think, Natasha, that anybody who has a gun concealed in their pocket, ready to shoot my team mates whilst casually flipping a second loaded gun around, needs to be a little more transparent. So please, do yourself a favour and put both hands where I can see them before I shoot you with the three guns I have pointed at you.'

Natasha put both her guns down- both some futuristic tech the military was renowned for having.

'Now, Tony. Is there, say, any other reason as to why you are here, rather than you needed me to fix the world you somehow messed up?' I asked calmly.

'You aren't the only one!' Tony blurted out. 'We don't need you.'

I looked at him coolly. 'Well then, _get out_. I have had enough of having to help the military- and if you come back I will kill you.'

There was movement in the corner of my eye, and I stretched my hand out, green energy welling up in my hand.

'Don't even think about it, Agent Romanoff,' I growled.

'We aren't leaving until you say you will come with us,' a man with chocolate brown hair said from the foot of the stairs. 'That can be of your own will, or we will take it to the next level.' He pounded one fist into his palm menacingly, and I chuckled. He really hadn't seen my file.

'Really? You want to take me on?' I asked, dropping into my attack stance. 'Come on then.' The other guy pulled out a bow and arrow, pointing it at me.

Chase grabbed me and pulled me back against his chest in an incapacitating hold.

'Alex, not now. Why don't you find out what they want before you kill one of them?'

I rolled my eyes and sighed. 'Fine.'

Chase let me go, and I stretched out. 'So, I presume there is a reason?'

'Loki is on Earth, here to reclaim the Tesseract. It was on Earth after Odin entrusted it to some kind of covert religious group. In World War Two, the Red Skull got a hold of it, and ended up almost destroying the planet with it. Loki intends to use the Tesseract to bring the Other back into our world, to enslave the whole of humanity and of course, to become Lord of the Universe.'

'And you want me to do what?' I couldn't keep the snappiness out of my voice. I needed to go hit something. Not only had Tony woken me up, my headache had returned with a renewed vengeance.

'You know how Captain America died in the war?'

I nodded. 'Except he didn't die, he's still buried under ice somewhere in the Atlantic. We had to go do a reconnaissance mission there two years back after a ship was found in the ice. However, it was a waste of time, seeing as a blizzard came up and the station manager was drunk and couldn't remember the co-ordinates.'

Tony blanched. 'Surely there's a form you have to fill in to stop you from talking about classified stuff?'

'There was something like that at our base, wasn't there, guys?' I asked sarcastically, watching Alpha Teams heads nod and grimaces come over their faces. I glared at Tony. 'It was called having some part of your body broken.'

'Ribs,' Hunter said, nodding. 'They hurt, especially when they punctured the lung.'

'You always got your jaw broken, didn't you, Alex? That and your hip bones,' Cain said.

Everybody stared at me in horror. I could see the concentration in their minds as they tried to fathom a person getting body parts broken just because of the simple fact that they said something wrong. The sympathy in their eyes made me scowl.

'Why do you need me, Stark?' I asked, trying to dispel the stares.

'We found him. That's the thing. Banner located him, and we've pulled him up from the ice. He's actually alive still, but seeing as nobody has been retrieved from cryogenic states before, we wanted you to try and heal him. He might have crucial information on the Tesseract that could aid us in defeating Loki. But at the moment, he's kind of a Capsicle.' Stark smiled a perked up a little. 'Capsicle…' he mused. 'I like it.'

'Time is crucial,' the man who had challenged me added.

'If I go, Alpha Team comes with me.' There. If they truly needed me, then they would let Alpha Team come too.

'No can do, Alexis.'

I stared at him in disbelief, then changed tact, yawning and stepping toward my bedroom door.

'It was nice to meet you, Mr Stark, but I think I will go back to bed. Give me a call when you are ready to reconsider.'

He pressed a button that sat in his hand, and all of sudden, the room was flooded with men.

My eyes widened when I recognised some of them from the base I was in. The menacing grins on their faces confirmed they recognised me too.

Mel, Jeremy, Kian and Rosie were marched forward, and forced to their knees.

'If you shoot them, I will kill you all,' I said, the warning coming from deep within my throat.

There was a gun shot from above me, and Hunter collapsed, rolling down the stairs. Blood blossomed from his shirt as his eyes met mine. I opened up the mind link, seeing how he didn't want to talk.

 _Run, Alex_. And then he was gone.

 _Send the static, Alex. We'll get the Allen family out. You need to stay behind and make sure that none of these idiots are fully conscious._ Chase nodded toward my adoptive family and then the men with guns, and I locked eyes with him.

 _Be careful_ , I said, waiting for my team to build up their mental defences.

I gradually began introducing the static. Romanoff was the first to go, holding her head and sinking to her knees. Tony was next, before the blonde and the guy who had threatened me clued onto what I was doing.

An arrow flew past my head and I looked up sharply, to see the hammer come speeding toward me. So this guy was Thor. Fantastic.

I increased the static tenfold, waiting for the gunmen to drop. Chase was watching me through the window as he pulled Rosie up onto his back and began running.

The hammer caught me in the stomach and I slammed into the wall. Thor was upon me in milliseconds. I blocked him quickly and jumped to standing.

'Do you Asgardians know what a courtesy call is?' I asked, punching him in the face. He went flying back down the stairs, and I dusted myself off, just to see the archer dude notch three arrows and send them at me. I dodged all three and slid underneath him, coming up from behind to break his nose.

An African-American man joined the fray, squeezing off a couple of shots before I got to him and took the gun from him, delivering a blow to his jaw that shattered it into several pieces. He groaned, but continued fighting. I sighed in frustration. Would these people not learn when to give up? Probably one of their superhero codes.

I stretched my arm out and let off a few bursts of green energy, knocking a few men down.

Then a blinding pain at the base of my skull saw me hit the floor, and people nudge me with their feet, before a sedative of some sort, one that I had never become immune against, slipped into my bloodstream.

Stupid unhealable headaches.

 **So, what do you think so far? Let me know! REVIEW!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Thank-you for the follows! Still no reviews... :( .Oh well. I hope you enjoy it thus far, and some feedback and comments would be much appreciated. My free time is beginning to diminish with the introduction of schoolwork (I hate being a senior!), however, I will try to post chapters as often as I can.**

I woke up in a small stainless steel room. It appeared to be made out of just one sheet of metal as I jumped to my feet and began evaluating the room. I stumbled a little at first, but began pulling myself around the room, gradually getting a sense of my bearings. I spotted the security camera in the corner. This was just like one of those escape games that Kian always made me help him with. He posted the cheats onto the internet and had a massive following.

I aimed my energy at the base of the camera box, which appeared to be encased in some kind of impenetrable glass. I weakened the base, and using my strength, ripped it out from the casing. The wires looked interesting enough, and there was a small nuclear battery in it. I pried the cover of the control panel off and I pulled apart the wiring and attached it- along with the several wires and switch- to the control pad above the door. I slid the switch to the "on" position, and the keypad was short-circuited. It opened straight away for me.

Stealthily entering the minds of the various people around me, I found that I was in the underground section of the facility. If I was going to get out, I would have to get upstairs somehow.

A squad of guards went past me, chatting loudly as they ran. I went in the opposite direction to them, and found myself in a weapons room. Armour was sitting on the shelves. I looked for one that might have fitted me and pulled it on. I strapped on three holsters- ankle, shoulder and waist- and pulled my hair up into a ponytail, sliding it through the hole at the back of one of the baseball caps I found stowed away at the back of the room. Holding my gun securely between both hands, I successfully hid two knives in my clunky borrowed boots and in my belt before going back out to the facility.

I was practically ignored by everybody I passed until I got to the corridor I had been imprisoned in. Tony Stark and Banner stood there, examining the wiring.

'Send off the emergency signal. Everybody in the room gets inspected before they leave,' Tony ordered the troop surrounding him. They nodded and moved off, a red emergency klaxon going off throughout the area. I quickened my pace as I passed, trying to escape the attention of the guards.

I swiped a female ID from the rack of photo cards and smiled at the two guards beside the elevator, before pressing the ground floor button.

Tony Stark held open the door and squeezed in before it moved up.

I shifted uncomfortably as he glanced momentarily over to me.

'Nice day, isn't it?' he commented cheerfully, whistling happily. His mind began sparking off all kinds of options as I didn't reply. I made my voice perky and happy.

'I wouldn't know- I just got off duty.' If it was a trick question, I had just shut him down.

'Oh? Which team?' he asked, pleased I replied. His brain ran through a list of leaders while I tried to pick an appropriate one. It took me less than a second to find one.

'Phi,' I told him, blushing and looking through the glass walls of the elevator. He allowed himself a grin, thinking I was paying attention to him in a way other than brisk business. He briefly wondered if I was single or if because I was one of the only women in Phi, I had a S.H.I.E.L.D boyfriend.

The doors pinged to announce that we had arrived at the ground floor.

'Have a great day,' Tony said, smiling at me right before the doors closed. I returned the smile before hurrying along the corridor at something a little more than the average walking speed.

When I got out, I noticed guards combing the street for something. Curious bystanders gawked at the increased authority presence.

A teenage girl with the same hair colour as me shrieked indignantly as one of the troops grabbed her, dragging her away from her parents, and threw her into a containment unit. Several other girls peered out, silent tears running down their faces. They all looked vaguely like me, but it seemed the guards were taking no chances until somebody could verify.

'Where are you taking her?' the girls' mother sobbed, running to the van.

The team leader in front of the distressed woman put a hand out to stop her.

'We are a taskforce handed the job of apprehending a violent criminal. She happens to look like your daughter, so we are taking anybody who looks like her off the streets.'

'Yes, but when will she be coming back?'

The guard gave her a nasty grin. From his thoughts, he wanted to torment that poor woman as much as he could.

'Maybe never.'

That was it. I stormed over to where he was and swung the end of my gun at him. It connected with his head with a sickening crack, and he crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

'You people sicken me,' I spat, kicking him so that he rolled over, his face to the sky.

I retrieved the pass key from his belt and slid it through the automated lock on the unit.

The woman who had been crying looked up at me.

'You're that superhero,' she said slowly, looking at the gun in my hand cautiously. To comfort her, I dropped it and wrenched the door open, ushering the sixteen-year-old girls out from the back.

'Get in your cars and go,' I told them, and the adults clamouring around me. 'Please do it, before somebody gets hurt.'

There was a thud from behind me, and the eyes of everybody around me went very wide.

'Miss Alexis. Isn't this a pleasant surprise?'

I stiffened. It couldn't be him. There was no chance- he had died in the fire.

Coordinator Greeves stood before me, his arms crossed as he tapped a foot impatiently. Behind him stood Agent Romanoff, Archer Dude, Thor Wannabe, Tony Stark and Banner, in a classic "we're a team and we're here to win the game" pose. They had no idea how vulnerable that pose made them. They were blind from behind, so anything could go on behind their back, and they just looked stupid. It was making their egos vulnerable.

Archer Dude had a _very_ swollen nose and eye, and Thor Wannabe appeared to be limping.

'Go to hell, Greeves!' I yelled, pulling a knife quickly out of my belt, spinning it around in my hand and sending it toward him in a way that would be considered a warning shot.

'The next one goes between your eyes, Greeves. And I mean it.'

'Come now, Alexis. Let us be mature about this. What harm have I done to you?'

'Let me think: you strapped a bomb to my leg to see what happened when it exploded when I was nine, you broke eight of my ribs when you drove a car going at one hundred and ten kilometres an hour into me when I was eleven, you starved me for three weeks straight when I was twelve, you made me kill innocent people when I was thirteen in the war and… do you really want me to continue?'

Tony Stark glared at Greeves. 'You did that to a kid?'

'She was a superhero. The world's first naturally made one. We think it was because her mother worked in the nuclear site we used to house the super soldier serum in it- when it exploded, the baby was fine, although the mother suffered third-degree burns to her body. We had to do tests to determine her strengths and weaknesses.'

Using this discussion as a distraction, I grabbed my gun and fired two warning shots.

'Do you really need me, or is this just part of some elaborate scheme to kidnap me? Let me tell you, I've had enough of that, thanks.'

'We need you, Alexis. We need you to wake him up. And if you feel like sticking around, we would like you to join the team also.'

I stared at Archer Dude, who winced as he rubbed his face.

'I can fix that,' I said, stretching my hand out to touch his nose gently. Green energy was absorbed by his skin, and his skin returned to its natural tone, all of the black and blue disappearing.

Romanoff checked Archer Dudes face. 'Clint, this is amazing. It almost like you never got beaten by a teenage girl.'

Clint scowled and pushed her away. 'You pack a good punch,' he said to me, lowering his bow.

I smiled. 'Thanks. I did have ten years practice for the number I did on your face.'

'Ten years? How long did it take you to learn that? That's a manoeuvre that took me five extra years to perfect.'

That comment wiped the smile off my face. 'I guess, when you've been taught to be a killing machine, emotions don't get in the way of your fighting,' I whispered softly.

Greeves looked over at me with an air of superiority. _That_ is what made me snap.

'You sicken me, Greeves,' I growled, whipping my gun out from where it was hidden in my shoulder holster. 'Anyway, you died in the fire.'

'No, I didn't. S.H.I.E.L.D came and rescued me- it seems that because you shot me, you garnered me a little sympathy.'

'You massacred two hundred of America's finest soldiers! I think that warranted you getting shot!' I yelled.

'You did what, Greeves?' Stark's face was a clear indicator on just how angry he was.

'Yes, that's right. You think I'm your enemy, when you have, in fact, brought one of the most dangerous men in the world into your ranks.'

'Now look, I think everyone's emotions are running just a little high-' Greeves began, holding up his hands and backing away slowly.

I cocked my gun, flicked the safety off, and shot him. 'Take that, you sick bastard,' I growled.

Agent Romanoff let out a small strangled cry as I put the gun away, back into the holster sitting on my hip. She ran to Greeves, but I knew that there was no way she would be able to revive him. A bullet in the brain is hard to recover from.

'How could you do something like that? So cold and so cruelly?' Natasha exclaimed, straightening up from where she had been bent over Greeves.

I smiled coolly. 'Easy. That man turned me into what I am. Karma is a bitch.'

Stark looked at me curiously. 'Do I need to…?'

'Restrain me? Sedate me? No, I don't think so. I am perfectly in control of myself, thank-you. I don't kill people unless they deserve it. Greeves deserved all he had coming and more. I simply ended it before it could get worse. Anyway, he was lucky that you were here, or else it would have been a much longer, painful, drawn out death.'

Thor Wannabe stared at me. 'Why? What would you do?'

I raised an eyebrow cockily, and he audibly gulped. 'Do you really want me to go into details?'

There was an explosion behind me, and we whirled around to look at the direction of the noise. Two men in business suits stood there with a small rocket launcher.

'What are you doing here?' Stark yelled. 'This is a Level Eight case!'

The two men looked at each other, grinned and aimed the rocket launcher back in our direction.

'Get down!' I shouted, pushing Stark to the ground as the rocket flew over our heads and blew up.

'What do you want?' I asked, calmly putting my hands up to prove I wasn't going to shoot them. I motioned for the idiots beside me to do it too. With grumbling, they grudgingly agreed.

'We want you, Alexis. We want you with us.'

'Who's "we"?' I challenged. It was imperative that I find out who the nutcase was who sent the two goons who didn't know how to use a rocket launcher.

'Hydra.' Beside me, I heard a sharp intake of breath from Stark. These people weren't good news, apparently. 'We want you to not only join our side, but to wake Captain America up and kill him for good.'

'And what's in it for me?' I asked brazenly.

'Alexis, no!' Stark shouted. I turned to him.

'Shut it, old man! I am trying to have a conversation. Go and play hero with someone else.'

The Hydra men sniggered, and I scowled. 'I said, what's in it for me?'

'You will become our Golden Girl. You will have everything you ever wanted.'

'Yeah, unfortunately for you guys, the only thing I've ever wanted was my freedom, which I'm pretty sure Hydra doesn't really dole out. So, I think it's going to have to be a "no" from me.'

The men shrugged. 'Have it your way,' one said, aiming the rocket launcher again. 'We have all day.'

'Funnily enough, so do I,' I muttered. I spread my hands out and felt my green energy envelop me, making a sphere around my body. The man with the rocket launcher raised it again, and I saw the red laser dot on my chest before directing my hands toward them. The energy poured off of me, speeding toward the men. I listened to the crackle as it hit them, and allowed myself a rare grin. The men dropped to the ground, rocket launcher landing on the road with a clang.

I picked it up and aimed it at a nearby car. I'd picked up the mind of a third operative, who as soon as they saw me, bailed from the car. Even though the car was empty, I still fired at it. The car exploded, the missile impact making a sonic boom that knocked the people behind me off their feet.

'Nice work,' Romanoff told me, dusting herself off. 'I suppose you aren't going to work for Hydra?'

'I did. They just don't remember it,' I answered quietly. I turned to face them all. 'I did a lot of things I am most definitely not proud of. If you are willing to take a chance with me, I would appreciate it.'

Stark considered it for a moment, watching each member of his team. Each nodded in their own silent confirmation.

'Pixie was your field name, right?' I nodded, and he grinned, mulling it over. 'Okay, Pixie. We'll show you to where the cryogenic chambers are.'

 **Review? It would be much appreciated!**


	9. Chapter 9

**So far I have received a few reviews and a couple of you have Followed and Favorited! Thank-you for that! It actually (as sad as it might sound) brightens my day.**

It had taken Thor and Stark to move him, but Captain America lay on the stainless steel bench in front of me. He was still wearing his uniform; the red, blue and white making me smile slightly. Very patriotic in a country where its citizens didn't understand that they were handing their freedom over to the corporate fat cats and the army they paid so much to keep them safe and invade every detail of their lives.

He had no idea of the new world he was about to be brought into- quite forcefully, I might add. I decided that no matter what the circumstances were, I would be his ally- I think I needed one what with the guards at my back in case I tried to kill somebody.

'You know, it's a bit hard to revive somebody through solid five foot block of ice,' I said drolly.

'Yes, I was about to get to that,' Stark said, pressing a button on his wrist. A laser cut through the ice with amazing precision- enough that it was almost like an exoskeleton. A wave of hot air melted the exoskeleton, and I moved forward, placing my hand on his chest.

The green pulsed out from beneath my hands and enveloped us both in a green shield.

'This hurts!' I gasped, feeling white-hot pain radiate up my arm and through my body. I pushed it back and tried to focus on the task in front of me, but to no avail. The pain kept going.

All of a sudden, he drew in a massive breath, and his eyes fluttered open.

'Who are you?' he asked. I placed a finger on his lips and pushed him back down on the table.

'My name is Alex, and I'm healing you. Don't waste all your energy, and get some rest.'

Thor crossed over to where I was standing, with my hands over Captain America's chest. I could feel that he was almost healed.

'Alexis, you look unwell,' Thor said, peering down at me with concern.

'I'm going to… faint,' I murmured, feeling my knees go weak as they collapsed beneath me. I knew that I had pushed myself too far- my headache was still there too.

Clint reached out and caught me as I fell. As his skin made contact with mine, I felt the memories of the base well up, triggered by the memory of the few times this had happened with me.

Then there was nothing but black.

'That had to have been one of the most pathetic excuses for a healing exercise I have ever seen.'

Kane stood over me. This was an earlier memory- before he had told me who he actually was. I was ten.

'I am sorry, sir. It will not happen again.' I think this was also when my superiors were slightly more lenient about when I spoke. However, it must have been one word too many, because he punched me in the face.

'What if you were on a field assignment, Pixie? Your whole team would have died!' he roared.

I glanced over to where the men were standing. A much younger Chase and a much younger Joe stared back at me. Joe was cradling his ribs, which I knew had been broken for me to try healing.

'Yessir,' I muttered, and reached out to Joe, who took his hands momentarily off his ribs.

Kane flew at me and knocked me to the ground.

'No, you can heal yourself first!' he bellowed, and broke my jaw by slamming his fist into it. I heard it crack before I felt the pain. The same went for my ribs and hipbones.

As I lay there in a broken heap, Kane began muttering. 'Stupid child. You will never learn.'

He left me there, as I began dragging myself over to where my team lay, in a pile of broken bones.

Chase reached out and grabbed my hand, using himself as a channel for my powers, which he directed to the rest of the team. I just stared at him, occasionally wincing when I drew in a marginally larger breath than the small pants I was forced to breathe in.

'It'll be alright, Alex. Just remember, team mates look out for each other,' he told me, finally chancing a whisper.

Kane stomped in and kicked me hard, right in the broken ribs. 'Emotions will be your downfall, Alex. Remember that.'

I glared defiantly up at him, before his boot was raised and he smashed it into my head.

'NO!' I screamed, sitting up in the bed that I appeared to be resting in. The visuals from the memory still hadn't faded, and neither had the injuries. 'I cannot be back. Please, no!' I sobbed.

I don't think I could have handled being back. It was sort of funny because only two weeks ago I had been wishing that I could go back to the way my life had been. Now, I don't think anything could make me want to go back.

'You know, you aren't anything like your file suggests,' a voice said from beside me. I didn't jump- my military training had basically taught me not to.

'I am not like anything anybody expects,' I grumbled. 'Anyway, are you not supposed to be scared of me? Or avoiding me, like everybody else is?'

'I've only been awake for sixteen hours. Give a guy a break.'

'Okay, I will, but only if you help me over to where Clint is so I can heal his injuries. I accidentally Shared some stuff with him.'

The mystery figure noticed my capital letter. 'Share?' he inquired, coming around to the side of the bed and helping me up.

'It's where I telepathically relay memories to another person. If I get injured- which happens a lot in my memories- then I inflict those injuries on both myself and those who view it. Clint would have a variety of broken bones- ribs, hips, jaw and a skull fracture. Am I right?'

The figure paused for a second. 'Yes, you are. You said you could heal him?'

'Pretty much,' I said, spreading my hands out and placing them on Clint's chest. As the green spread out, I watched the stranger to gauge his reaction. In the dim lighting, I could see that he was shocked.

'I have never met anybody who could do something like that. You're pretty lucky,' he eventually managed to stammer out.

Beneath my hands, Clint took a deep breath and drifted into a deeper sleep, meaning he was healed and that I could move away from him.

I wiggled my fingers, watching as the tips lit up- a trick I had learnt to do when I was seven and was being taught my energy exercises. 'Everything comes with a price. Mine was my freedom- I realise now that I would never trade it for all of the cool powers in the world.'

The man stared at me for a minute. 'I must admit, I haven't read your file. What makes you so-?'

'Pragmatic?' I finished for him. He nodded, and I relaxed the tension in my shoulders. 'I guess it would be a few things- I was raised to be a weapon, I saw things no person my age has seen before, I realised what freedom was like. I've learnt that you always need to be realistic whilst journeying through life. Everybody has their own hopes and dreams, but they are just that- hopes and dreams. If you don't succeed in attaining them, you can't help but feel you've failed in life.'

The man sat down and blew out a sigh.

'May I ask what made you like this?'

I shrugged. 'Easy. I was just born really lucky.'

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	10. Chapter 10

**Okay guys. I am starting to lose my creative mojo, so the chapters may be posted up a lot less. I will try my best to keep it regular, but I make no promises. And hey, a review would be nice!**

I had been sitting beside Clint's bed for about three hours. It baffled me that none of the "heroes" had arrived to see how he was doing- maybe they just didn't care enough about him. Natasha had though- I had heard her thoughts as she was watching him when I had healed Clint's face. For a woman who didn't care, the jealousy was almost palpable.

The camera in the corner had a light going, which blinked red furiously. I glared at it before standing up to inspect the wall.

The man from before- who had introduced himself as Steve- groaned in frustration. 'What are you doing now?'

I glowered at him, and he backed off marginally. 'I'm looking for a way out- O Half-Wit.'

He glowered back indignantly. 'I take offence to that.'

'Good. You should.'

Steve flopped back on his bed with a soft thud, and I smiled at him.

'For a military man, you don't show it.' He scowled at me, but then lightened up as he thought of a retort.

'For a teenage girl, you sure don't act like one.'

I paused where I was. 'You really didn't read my file, did you?'

'I know your name is Alexis,' he said hesitantly.

'Well, give the guy a medal,' I said bitterly, testing the thickness of the walls.

He stood up and touched my shoulder lightly. 'Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that.'

I flinched away. 'I don't like to be touched,' I muttered.

He took a step back and looked at me.

'I'm sorry, Alexis. I don't know a thing about you yet, so I vote that I don't listen to a thing people say about you, and you don't listen to anything about me. We'll get to know each other as two normal people.'

'You know, for a secret organisation, they seem to have a lot of gossiping.' I could barely contain the grin that threatened to spread over my face. 'I'd watch out for that if I were you.'

A single section of the metal wall seemed less solid beneath my fingertips- I pushed against it and it gave way slightly.

'Stand back,' I advised Steve, taking a few steps back myself before running at the wall and kicking it hard. The metal bent easily beneath my force, and the door crumpled like tinfoil.

'How did you learn to do that?' Steve asked as we incapacitated the guards and stole their guns.

'The thickness of the door, coupled with the force of my kick caused the weight to be unevenly balanced, therefore the door broke.'

'That simple, huh?' he asked, checking the corridor before we ran down it.

'I'm putting it in layman's terms for you.'

'I gathered that. You had this look on your face…'

I gave him the look again, and he took a few steps back.

'I vote that we try to get out of here,' he said, putting his hands in the air.

'Good vote. Let's go this way.'

Tony Stark was kneeling on the floor, his hands on his head. The rest of S.H.I.E.L.D was following suit as I evenly trained my gun on each and every one of them. Steve stood at my back, covering the agents I couldn't see.

'Thank-you for being so courteous,' I said, as Nick motioned toward a door. 'But I'm not stupid. I know that door has an automatic lock on this side, and it will trap me without an escape option if I go through it.'

Stark stared at me.

'How do you know that?' he asked. I tapped the side of my head, and his shoulders sagged a little.

'Do you want to explain why I was locked in a room for three hours while one of your team members was seriously injured?'

Clint looked up from where he was leaning on Natasha- looking quite drained. 'Alexis, you really don't need to yell at them-' he began, but I rounded on him.

'Shut up. They should not have left you like that, Clint. Especially since you are part of their team.'

My fingers played with the knife sitting at my waist, and I felt the cold steel gradually heat with my touch.

Nick stared at me. 'Thor, tell me that you're seeing it too,' he muttered.

Thor stood frozen as he stared at me, his eyes practically bugging out of his head. 'You are not the only one, my friend.'

'Cover me while I look at something,' Nick whispered.

'Is that…?' Stark asked Banner, who stared at me like Thor did.

'Alex, put the sceptre down.'

Wolf's voice echoed through the room and I turned to see Alpha Team- minus Hunter- standing there, guns aimed at my head.

' _The sceptre_ , Alex,' Wolf growled. 'Put it down. Now.'

I looked down at the heavy metal object in my hand. And dropped it when I realised who it belonged to.

'Oh no,' I murmured. 'This is his.'

'Whose?' Steve asked curiously as I hesitantly replaced the sceptre from where I had picked it up in the middle of the lab.

'Alex?' Wolf asked as my knees swayed.

'Please,' I whispered. 'No… he can't be here.'

Pale white skin and bright blue eyes crossed my vision. Billowing green cloaks and golden horns enveloped me, and a sceptre flashed a bright blue.

Wolf grabbed my hand before I fell completely. 'Alex, stand up.'

I think I had gone into a state of shock- something that had never occurred before- when I heard Wolf's voice again. Maybe he was trying to snap me out of it.

'ALPHA TEAM TO ATTENTION! I WANT TO SEE STRAIGHT BACKS AND MIITARY PRECISION! GET ON YOUR FEET RIGHT NOW, YOU SNIVELLING COWARDS! NO TEAM MEMBER OF MINE WILL-'

And I think that was when I blacked out.

'NO TEAM MEMBER OF MINE WILL BE PUT ON PUNISHMENT FOR THIS MONTH!' Wolf bellowed as we formed a line on the front of the camp, right beside our tents. 'THIS IS ABOUT HELPING OUR COUNTRY!'

We were in Baghdad. I remembered this because the sun was blocked out by the clouds of dust being thrown up by the wheels of the multiple vehicles in our small camp. It made the sun appear silver, almost like we belonged to a completely different planet. And because I was being treated a little more like a human being, I felt like I was no longer in America.

I stood beside Fox and gave him a dubious glance.

'Wolf, since when was attending to the higher-ups part of helping our country?' he inquired. Wolf stalked over and smashed Fox in the face. He fell to the dust at our feet, blood dripping over his lip and onto the ground from his nose.

I bent down and touched his face gently to seal the wound.

'Since I said it was,' Wolf growled, his trademarked curled lip making an appearance yet again. When we had first begun our covert operations in Iraq, the smile on Wolf's face and his cheekiness had been pushed further and further beneath the surface. It seemed that the longer we were exposed to the harshness of the campaign, the more serious he had become.

'I'm assuming our plus-one will not be attending?' Eagle said, his head inclining toward me. I concentrated on staring on front of me.

'No. Pixie will not be attending- she has a training session with Supervisor Finch. Now, I want you all to meet me over by the Command tent in the next five minutes looking slightly better than you do now. Pixie, go over to the Training tent. Supervisor Finch will be there shortly.'

They all trailed over to the team tent, muttering about the unfairness of it all.

Little did I know that Wolf and the rest of my team were about to plan how to end the war with my involvement. And little did I know who exactly it was they were working with.

 **So, let me know what you think!**


	11. Chapter 11

A sharp pain pulled me out of my trance, and I realised somebody had slapped me. I brought my hand up to my cheek and felt the heat of the healing seep between my fingers.

'Stop it!' Steve shouted. 'That is not helping!'

I looked over at where Chase squatted beside me.

'Chase,' I whispered, extending a hand toward him. He grabbed it and squeezed it tightly before enveloping me in a hug.

'Shit, Alexis,' he murmured into my hair. 'You gave us such a scare.'

I wrapped my arms around him.

'Do you remember Baghdad?' I asked softly. He tensed under my touch.

'I remember, but I am trying so hard to forget it. It was not a good time for any of us,' he replied. 'You especially,' he added.

And then I blacked out again.

The "Training tent" at Baghdad was anything but a tent. It was a semi-permanent building constructed of stainless steel. It had a sparring room with adjoining showers that only the members of Alpha Team were allowed to use.

My military superiors were different to my team members. They push me hard; teach me to kill people, to diffuse bombs, to negotiate a hostage situation. They also teach me how to use my talents.

Which is what I am doing now.

Superior Finch is leaning over me as I lie on my back on the floor. She is laughing- I see her teeth as she draws back her lips over her teeth like a wild animal does when it is frightened- throwing her head back with a wild shake and cackled like a hyena.

'Come on, Pixie. You should know better than this. If your opponent is attacking you and you are injured, what should you do?'

'Block them,' I replied through gritted teeth, ignoring the pain that radiated up my arms and through my chest. Finch had broken at least three bones in each from where she kicked them before, and I felt the green energy that rolled up my arms to heal me knit together some of the bone. It would take longer than usual- I hadn't eaten for eight days as part of my starvation punishment for talking during a training session with Finch the other week. She had a special hand in doling out the other part of my punishment.

'Exactly, Pixie,' she hissed, striking out at me. 'So do that!'

I blocked her effectively, jumping to my feet and throwing in a few punches of my own. They hit her specially designed armour- which meant that I just ended up making my knuckles bleed and more pain ricochet up my arm. We sparred like this for a good hour, before the alarm for the end of training went- breaking us apart. Some of the assigned guards from Delta Team came over to me from where they had been guarding the door, and motioned towards the showers. I hesitantly followed them.

Finch walked over to the bench on the far side of the room, wiping her face with a towel. She was one of the three women in the base-she was a superior, the other was about forty and a mission director, and the only other one was me.

'Good, Alex. You will get dinner tonight, even though you had a shocking training session- apparently the Director needs you for something tomorrow night.'

I stiffened. 'I was not aware of this,' I said. 'Why did he not ask?'

'Alex, you will do whatever the hell we tell you to do, and you will not ask questions, ever,' Finch said, looking up sharply at me. Her eyes glittered dangerously, with the hint of menace in them that I had come to recognise. 'Do you understand?'

I nodded.

'Good. But just in case- boys, do you think you could teach Miss Alex here a lesson about asking questions?'

The two guards muttered affirmations and Finch tossed her long, honey brown hair over her shoulder as she flounced out of the room.

The one of the guards pinned me to the wall, and the other drove his hands into my ribs. Something cracked, and the guard who hit me grinned nastily. A second hit broke my hip. Seeing the pain I was in, they threw me to the floor and kicked me hard. A bone in my leg broke.

The guard who had been holding me against the wall grabbed my broken leg and dragged me over to the showers, throwing me into the small tiled room and slamming the door shut.

I lay there on my back as the green quickly zipped across my broken body and healed it.

Using a nearby towel rack as support, I moved over to the showers, where my folded up Special Operations uniform, headpiece and boots lay on a nearby bench.

The door on the opposite wall opened and Alpha Team filtered in. They looked hot and sweaty, an indicator of the hard work they had been doing for higher-up in the past four hours.

Snake, Tiger and Fox crossed over to their respective shower cubicles. I heard the sound of the shower spray hitting the tiles, and Snake began to hum.

Eagle tapped my foot gently. 'Alex? I kind of broke my arm and I was wondering if you could take a look for me?'

I was the unofficial medic for Alpha Team- healing with a touch was all the qualification I needed.

I steadied myself and stared at his right arm. My fingers pressed flush to his bulging arm muscles, and when I took it away, his arm was healed.

He gave me a lopsided grin. 'Thanks.'

I nodded, before retreating back into my cubicle and closing the door with a resounding click. I gently pulled on my uniform, securing my hair into a slick ponytail and ensuring my headpiece and microphone were working.

Outside, in the changing room, I could hear the mutters of Eagle and somebody else conversing. I leant against the wall and took a deep breath as the last of the damage to my ribs healed.

Wolf vaulted over the cubicle door, almost landing on me in the process.

'No, she is not naked, guys!' he called, and grinned cheekily at me as the groans of disappointment echoed around the training room. That was the smile I missed so much, enough that an ache formed in my chest each time I saw it now. Because I knew that it wouldn't last much longer.

Wolf was five years older than me, and next to me was the second youngest person in the base. He was also the squadron leader for Alpha Team- a fact that I was always well aware of. He took his job incredibly seriously.

He leant forward, pressing his lips to mine gently, and then letting it grow as I responded to his touch. Wolf was the only person who could make me feel anything- and only when he was kissing me did I feel human, like I wasn't a killing machine the army was using to give them an advantage against the rest of the world.

The heat generated by the sparks of the healing of my legs and hips grew between us, and he stopped kissing me for a moment.

'Fucking Finch,' he growled. 'One of these days, I'm going to kill her. What happened this time?' he asked softly, placing a large hand on the side of my face.

'I have to meet the Director tomorrow, sir,' I replied, watching the blood drain from his face. 'I requested from Supervisor Finch the nature of the meeting, and she requested that the guards teach me a lesson.'

He just stood there, staring at me. 'Why?' he whispered. 'We only just discussed the plan today…'

'I have never met the Director,' I said quietly.

Wolf opened the cubicle door, and the men stared at us both. I sat on the bench and stared straight ahead.

'Pixie has to meet the Director tomorrow,' he announced.

Everybody froze where they were- even Snake stopped humming.

'Team meeting. Now,' Eagle said, sliding onto the bench beside me.

'Facts first: the Director is a bastard. What's our plan of attack?'

'Pixie is silent until he asks questions. Don't get detailed; straight, and to the point.'

'What if it's for… _injections_?' Eagle asked- the implications behind his words making alarm bells ring in my ears.

'There is a chance that it could be for injections, Eagle, but there is also a fairly high chance it's for some other unknown reason. How old are you again, Pix?'

'Fifteen, sir,' I murmured, and Wolf put his head in his hands before standing up and kicking a locker door hard.

'Shit!' The expletive echoed throughout the locker room, and the whole team stared at Wolf in disbelief. Outward displays of emotions were not encouraged at the base.

'What, sir?' I inquired, staring up at him, watching the sharp rise and fall of his chest.

'Higher-up agreed that fifteen was old enough for their grand plans involving you. They are going to send you into the field… to assassinate Saddam Hussein.'


	12. Chapter 12

**Hey Everybody! Sorry it's been a while- I haven't had a chance to update or write any new chapters due to my laptop being "decommissioned" if you like due to my transfer of schools and stuff. So, without further ado, I present... Chapter 12!**

 **(Oh, and maybe leave a review, yeah?)**

'Hussein,' I whispered as my eyes snapped open. I was in what appeared to be a medical bay, and a nurse was attaching an IV to my wrist as I sat up. The nurse pushed me back down.

'Don't move,' he said grimly. Chase was holding my other hand tightly.

'Hussein,' I repeated- louder, this time, for the rooms benefit. 'He sent me in after Saddam Hussein.'

Everybody paused. Tony Stark and Steve- who both stood in the corner- perked up and stared at me.

'Alex, who? Who sent you in?' Chase pleaded from where he sat. 'It's obviously important- otherwise you wouldn't have had such an adverse reaction to the sceptre.'

'It's interesting, almost like the energy is-'

I faded out again.

'Whatever you do, _do not_ make eye contact.' Wolf advised me as we made our way over to the Command tent, the rest of Alpha Team in tow. He paused at the tent flaps as my team lined up outside. 'It will only make him feel as though you are defying them somehow. Be as submissive and weak-looking as you possibly can, okay?'

I nodded once, staring at the tent.

'Come in, Agent Masters,' a voice said from inside. Their tone was cool, and slippery- very much like how one would describe a snake.

A tall, rather pale man with dark hair and piercing blue eyes whirled around at my entrance into the tent. He was dressed in American military fatigues, which did nothing for his little muscle definition.

Another man- whom I recognised immediately as the Director from the files Wolf had shoved in front of me that morning while they were all eating breakfast and I was forced to watch them- looked up at me from his chair.

'This is Alexis Masters,' the Director informed the man standing by the side of the tent. He stood with authority that I immediately noticed. This man was not one to be trifled with. 'She is part of the Alpha Team, goes by the field name of Pixie. Perfect kill rate, intelligence no longer measured on the IQ scale, tactical genius, skilled in combat. She's exactly what you're looking for on this particular mission.'

The standing man crossed to where I stood. I forced myself to look straight ahead as he stared intently at my face.

'She will do,' the man said eventually, straightening up and turning to the Director. 'I expect her field ready at nineteen-hundred hours tonight. Hussein has… something of great value to me. This will neutralise his chances against our defence. You have both the mission prerogative and instructions, yes?'

The Director nodded. 'S.H.I.E.L.D sent you, didn't they? When this is over, tell them to keep their nose out of Camp Z. All debts will be paid off after this job.'

The man snarled and stalked out of the tent, pausing at the tent flaps. He spun around, and even though my gaze still fell on the Director, I knew the really annoyed stranger was staring directly at him, and in another sense, me.

'I don't work for S.H.I.E.L.D, you pathetic mortal. You will be on the receiving end of the wrath of Loki!' he shouted before disappearing.

The Director hit his head against the heavy wood of his desk. 'And then there are just the insane ones,' he muttered. 'Why the hell did I get messed up with this shit?'

I wasn't sure of he was referring to supposed Norse god who had just stormed out of the tent or to the entire mess that was Camp Z.

For my sake, I hoped he was talking about the Norse idiot. If that was the case, there was a highly likely chance that he would cancel the mission, and I wouldn't have to add another death to my conscience. Not that I had one, as far as my superiors were concerned.

'Agent Masters, you are dismissed,' the Director said tiredly. I saluted him, spun on my heel and strode out of the tent.

When I left, I looked in the direction that "Loki" had gone.

A man with the same body shape and facial features as the man who just been in the tent stared back at me, but with a billowing green cloak and armour. Two gold horns stuck out from his helmet, and I stared at him in amazement as he lifted up a golden staff that sat in the iron grip of his hand. He nodded once to me and then disappeared.

He would appear later, right before I threw the punch that ended that war, to reclaim the small glowing blue cube from the top drawer in Hussein's presidential desk. And then after telling me that he would be back, left me with an unconscious Hussein and confused team.

I told nobody about him.

'Loki!' I gasped, sitting up straight in bed again. Chase jumped up from where he stood beside me.

'Loki? As in, the megalomaniac who stole the Tesseract?' Stark asked from the other corner he was sitting in.

'Yes, sir,' I said, my brain reverting back to military mode. 'Subject 43, "Loki", was apprehended at the border of Special Forces Camp Z on December 11, 2003.'

'Camp Z?' Steve asked in confusion, but was shushed by Fury, who had entered the moment I was awake.

'What else, Soldier?' Chase pressed.

'Subject 43 requested the assistance of the Camp Z operative known as Pixie from the Director in their pursuit of the criminal Saddam Hussein. The Director, thinking that Subject 43 was a S.H.I.E.L.D operative, agreed, and upon the agreement stated that all debts of Camp Z to S.H.I.E.L.D were now null and void. Subject 43 then began screaming about the Director suffering his wrath, and then he disappeared.'

There was silence throughout the small hospital room.

'Camp Z?' Steve repeated.

'Captain, please go with Agent Romanoff to the nearest media room,' Fury sighed, his gaze not leaving mine as I noticed the two agents hurry out of the room. 'We will talk to you there.'

'Are you aware that Camp Z was run by HYDRA, in affiliation with the American Army?' Fury asked, addressing Alpha Team as well as the other agents and me.

'No,' I said.

'Yes sir,' Chase, Joe, Nick and Cain replied at the same time as me.

Fury looked taken aback, his one eye widening in surprise.

I stared at Chase. 'What? HYDRA was the one that rescued me. Surprisingly, SHIELD did nothing.'

Chase looked up at me, sadness evident in his eyes. 'It was a test, Pix. Mel and Jeremy were HYDRA- they were going to see how long it took you to adapt within a situation. Of course, this was at the request of the Director-'

'Are you meaning to tell me, Chase Matthews, that _you still work for them_?' I shouted.

Fury paled. Clint and Thor drew their weapons and covered the room.

I paused and glanced at Fury. 'About fifty members of your strike team are members of Camp Z. I would do something about that if I were you.'

'Natasha-' Fury began, but was cut off by a voice in the distance.

'On it!'

Gunshots echoed through the corridors, and I watched as Chase winced.

'You have a lot of nerve, Wolf,' I hissed at him. 'Showing up, pretending that you were here to help me, pretending that we were going to do some good, _pretending I had freedom_ , and all to tell me that this was a test?'

'Alexis-' he began, but I jumped to my feet, feeling green envelop my vision. Chase noticed my eyes glowing green and paled.

'You thought you could control me! You _lied to me_ , you hurt me, you tortured me, you made me do things no sane human being would do, and told me that team mates looked out for each other! What would you call this?' I screamed.

'Alexis-' Chase started yet again. I launched myself at him, tackling him to the ground.

'WHY?!' I shrieked, immobilising him and slamming my fist into his face. All the pent-up anger flowed through my hands and landed on Chase. I listened as my ex-team started yelling for order. Hands tugged at me, but I fended them off. Chase let out a whimper of pain, and it was then I stopped.

His face- bruised, bloody, and swollen- stared up at me.

'Ow,' he gasped.

 _What had I just done_? I stared at my shaking hands and then at the man who lay on the floor, a tear sliding down his cheek. Words flowed back at me, words I hadn't heard in a while. _You are useless! A monster who does not want to kill! Once the Director sees your uselessness, he won't want you anymore. And then you will be gone, forever._

Something pricked the side of my neck, and I crumpled to the floor.


	13. Chapter 13

**Unlucky Thirteen! Let's see how this goes down with you all. I hope you like it! If you do, or have** ** _any_** **questions regarding the fic, don;t hesitate to ask.**

 **So, onto the story.**

'It was an unprovoked attack.'

My eyes cracked open a fraction before I closed them again. They felt like lead.

'No, Captain. You saw the damage she did to a man she trusted. What would make you different?'

'Fury, I don't give a damn. Let me in now, or you can find yourself another Avenger.'

'Language, Capsicle,' Stark teased, and the sound of somebody being thrown bodily into a wall was heard. A small smile slipped onto my face.

'Shut up, Stark,' Steve muttered as the door opened.

Footsteps approached me, and a hand rested gently on my shoulder. 'Alexis. I know you can hear me,' Steve said quietly. I cursed internally, and instead of opening my eyes, I chose to speak.

'They lied to me. All of them, And to think I would be willing to _die_ for them, Steve,' I whispered.

I slowly opened my eyes to see him leaning over me, brow furrowed in concern.

'I know,' he said, taking a seat on the end of the bed. 'It isn't very fun, is it? To find out that the people you had started to trust were lying to you.'

'Except they have had ten years to tell me even a fraction of the truth. That hurts immensely.'

The memory of meeting my team for the first time welled up in me. I had been eight.

 _'This is your new team. They will be responsible for you out in the field, and you will be responsible for their lives.' As my supervisor moved up the line, introducing the men to me, I caught the eye of the tall, brown-haired blue-eyed one on the end, and I stared at him. He smiled and winked at me. It was the first time I had encountered a human emotion other than anger and fear, and I instantly felt the need to protect these people who were unfortunate enough to have to work with me. Even if it meant dying for them, I would keep them safe._

A tear slid down my face. 'I hurt him,' I breathed, looking back to Steve. 'I let my emotions govern my fighting, but at the same time, I was not thinking. It was like somebody else had temporarily taken over my body.'

Steve smiled sadly. 'It feels like that a lot, doesn't it?'

I winced. 'I should have taken a deep breath, let it all out. Cleared my mind. I should not have hit one of the very few people I call friend.'

'I did that once. I punched the Winter Soldier in the face only to discover that he was Bucky,' he sighed.

'You know James?' I inquired quizzically.

'You know him?' Steve spluttered.

I smiled wearily. 'He was one of my superiors three years back,' I informed him. 'We were pretty close on the field.'

'Are you sure? Where is he now?' Steve demanded, and I held my hands out.

'Can I go and see Chase?'

A small smile crossed Steve's face.

'Funnily enough, he asked exactly the same question when he regained consciousness. Come on, I'll take you to him.'

He helped me to stand and keyed in the code to the door, to reveal an unsmiling Fury.

'Soldier,' he said, and I unwittingly stood to attention, saluting him automatically before I realised what I was doing, stopping mid-salute. I zoned out and waited until I heard my name.

'At ease, Pixie,' Steve murmured in my ear.

'Captain, where do you think you are taking Miss Masters?'

I chuckled, and Fury's attention automatically snapped to me, 'Where do _you_ think he's taking me, Director Fury, sir?' I asked smarmily. 'Because you seem to think that I am going to run around, causing mischief and havoc like a God we all know is still here.' I tensed, waiting for the hit to come. The divulging of secrets was strictly prohibited at Camp Z.

'My, my,' Stark tutted. 'You appear to be well-trained in the art of backtalk.'

'Miss Masters, you need to learn to keep your mouth shut,' Fury snarled. 'Or else your team- who we have in our cells- might find themselves falling several thousand feet down.'

I elbowed him in the face, listening to the crack as his nose- and hopefully his jaw- broke beneath my hit.

'Don't _ever_ threaten my team,' I snarled, kicking him away as he held his face.

Stark stared at me and put his hands up. 'Please don't break the face. This is the face that thousands of people look at every day.'

Steve rolled his eyes. 'Not everybody looks at you by choice. Your advertisements for your technologies are everywhere.'

'Hey, I'm doing better than you, Capsicle,' he chuckled.

Steve pinned Stark to the wall, slamming his head against the wall.

'Stop calling me that, or I swear to God that I will end you!' he hissed.'

'ENOUGH!' I shouted, pulling Steve away from Stark. 'You are bickering like small children! Now, you two are supposed to lead a team of people to stop the end of the world, but you are not going to achieve it if you keep tearing at each other like that. Steve, I know you've just woken up from being encased in ice for seventy years and it is a scary new world, but guess what? I have gone through almost the same thing- I have had to adjust to a crazy world where there are more colours than black, white and camouflage! And Stark, I know that you have problems with listening to a guy who has been frozen for a long time, and was all your father could talk about- leading to your feelings of neglect and distrust, but you need to get over it if you want to beat Loki! Otherwise, you will be fighting a war you both know you will not win.'

Steve reluctantly released Tony, listening as he dropped to the floor with a thud.

'Right. Now, I was on my way to see Chase. You can either show me the way, or I go on my own and some idiot dies because they decide to try and kill me.'

Tony and Steve both looked at each other, their minds silently agreeing on one thing.

'We'll go with you,' they said together.

 **So, here is the last-ish chapter for a while... I actually hate holiday homework so much. You'd think that teachers would be kind when it comes to holidays, but no. Instead, they pile on the homework.**

 **I would love to know what people think... maybe I should just give up on this one- it seems a little like a lost cause, cos not many people are giving me** ** _any_** **feedback. But you know, if you like, leave a review? It would definitely be much appreciated.**

 **Littlestladybug out.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Wow. Sorry, it's been so long since I last posted a chapter for this fic. Anyway, here is the latest instalment- let me know what you think by leaving a review.**

 **~O~O~O~**

I hesitated at the door handle, the cool metal feeling like it was burning my hand.

"It won't bite you, Alex," Steve said softly.

"What have I done?" I whispered, my knees hitting the ground. " _I'm a monster_!"

"The man in the cell a few rows down is a monster," Stark said. "Until you have killed eighty people in two days _for fun_ , you are not a monster."

"It definitely wasn't fun, that's for sure," I muttered, not making eye contact with either of them because I just knew the looks they would no doubt be exchanging. "Why is Loki still here?"

"I believed that it would be a good idea for Loki to remain on Earth to answer to his crimes," a large blond-haired man - wearing a cape and some form of medieval armour with a hammer swinging at his side- sidled into the hallway.

"Thor, meet Alex," Stark said excitedly. "She's the reason we had a Code Black on the main deck!"

The Norse god evaluated me critically as if he couldn't believe it.

"But she is so small! How would she be able to take down one man, let alone twenty-three?" he eventually chuckled.

"I have my ways," I replied absently, turning my attention back to the door and looking up at Steve for confirmation.

"Wolf was my only true friend, the only person I ever trusted. How can I look him in the eye again?"

"Alex, if he truly is your friend, then he will be willing to forgive you," Steve replied, rubbing my shoulder gently.

I took a deep breath and opened the door.

 **~O~O~O~**

Chase looked up and smiled sadly at me when I entered to room. His face was a mess of black and blue- one eye was swollen shut and the cuts on his face were still bleeding. He sat at a plain interrogation table in the middle of the room, three pairs of handcuffs encircling his wrists and holding him to the table.

I approached him slowly, kneeling down beside him and touching my hand ever so gently to his cheek so as not to hurt him. He leant into my touch, my healing energy flowing into his skin, his eyes not leaving mine as the damage to his body disappeared within seconds.

"Hey Alexis," he whispered when I had finished my healing.

And that was when I completely lost it. My training- all those lessons on my emotions and keeping them in check- went out the window.

I flung my arms around him and let out a sob as I buried my face into his chest and cried.

"I'm so sorry!" I kept repeating over and over as I wept on him.

Both of his cuffed hands reached up and stroked my hair gently before pressing his lips softly against my forehead.

"It's not your fault," he said, holding me close to him as I continued to cry. "Well, it is, but the information kind of justifies the reaction, so it's actually mostly my fault."

I let out a half-sob, half-laugh as I looked up at him and moved back a little. My body ached at the sudden loss of human contact as I felt my tears dissipate.

"I thought-"

"What? That I would hate you? Despise you? Never want to see your face again?" Chase asked me, concern written across his face.

I nodded. He sighed.

"Alexis, I love you, and nothing can change that."

I stood there, shell-shocked and unable to move. Chase had just admitted to having feelings for me. It went against literally every single thing I had been told on base- emotions make you weak, you can't trust anyone, love will get you killed. My team were allowed to have their emotions so long as it did not interfere with their missions. But for me, I wasn't allowed to feel, or think. The only feeling I was encouraged to experience was the pain, and that was so I would try to minimise my exposure to it. Emotions were a no-no on base, and any kind of feelings involving me was punishable with termination. Every member of the team had that drilled into them from day one.

That was the moment I knew for sure that there was no way my team would ever return to HYDRA. That they would never ally themselves with HYDRA again. My team was loyal, alright, but we were loyal to each other. We kept each other safe.

"I think… I think I love you too," I somehow managed to stutter out, looking up at him to see the shock apparent on his face.

He moved his cuffed hands to tilt my face up before pressing the softest kiss imaginable to my lips.

"I know we've kissed before," he said when he'd moved back a little. "But I will consider that our first kiss because that was the first kiss where I knew your true feelings. I love you, Alexis."

I smiled as my heart warmed. "Even though I try to murder you sometimes?" I asked curiously.

He chuckled. "Even then."

He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into his lap. My head rested against his shoulder and I could hear the strong beat of his heart as he rearranged himself so I would be unable to feel the handcuffs.

Comforted by his arms and his heartbeat, I slowly drifted off to sleep.

 **~O~O~O~**

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